thomas16 Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 I HAVE JUST HAD A CALL FROM MY HUSBAND HE IS IN THE UK AT PRESENT WE IMPORTED OUR CAR 7 MTHS AGO INTO FRANCE, A NEW DISCOVERY, WE INSURED IT AND SENT THE UK TAX BACK.. THIS MORNING THE UK CLAMPERS TRIED TO TAKE IT AWAY DUE TO HAVING UK PLATES AND FRENCH TAX. ALBEIT WE HAVE STILL NOT HAD THE OLD TAX REFUND. IT ENDED UP WITH 12 OFFICIALS FROM TOWER HAMLETS AND THE CLAMPERS TRYING TO GET THE CAR TOWED AWAY. MY OL MAN CALLED THE POLICE, THEY WERE VERY SYMPATHETIC BUT SAID LEGALLY THEY CAN DO IT! THE CLAMPING CREW SAID THAT THE DVLCC SAID TO TAKE IT. MY HUSBAND CALLED THEM AND SAID RUBBISH, BUT...........U HAVE TO HAVEUK TAX FOR UK CAR.ANYHOW, AFTER MUCH DISCUSSION HE TOLD THE POLICE TO LET THEM TAKE IT AWAY AND GOT OUT OF IT FOR THEM TO TOW, BUT...ALAS IT WAS TOO HEAVY. THE POLICE SAID THEY ARE SORI BUT NOTHING THEY CAN DO. B 4 HE LEFT FRANCE FOR THIS QUICK TRIP, WE WERE ABOUT TO GET THE CAR SORTED WITH THE NECESSARY PLATES.ANYHOW HE WILL BE BACK THIS WEEK. THIS AREA IN TOWER HAMLETS(BOW, LONDON) IS FULL OF ILLEGAL PEOPLE, ALL SORTS. ABANDON CARS, ETC. AND THEY DONT HAVE A PROBLEM.TO GET TO THE POINT IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO/CUD HAVE DONE. HELP!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcazar Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Obvious mistake: he should have entered the UK illegally on a train, fallen off, "hurt" his back, then they'd have GIVEN him a house, car, driving lessons etc etc etc.BLIAR'S UK: A Sh*t heap! Everything for those that won't, or don't. Nothing for those that do, and as for justice? Forget it.AlcazarAlcazar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Carry a battery powered angle grinder :? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ty Korrigan Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Eh? Imported into France and still on U.K plates...? Why..?There is no road tax here.If you had imported the car then you would have been given a 'cart grise' and could have obtained your plates within hours.Is this really the whole story...?Sorry for your troubles though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ty Korrigan Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 So...I have read your post again. Have you imported your car but not bothered with changing plates...?Are you not displaying a valid U.K tax disk whilst displaying U.K plates...?You may only have yourself to blame here.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opalienne Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 What do you mean, French tax? There isn't any. How is it insured? If it's still on UK plates and no UK tax I would have thought that they were perfectly within their rights to tow it away (or worse). I hope you sort it out....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dotty0 Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Alcazar wrote the following post at 21/03/2006 21:24:Obvious mistake: he should have entered the UK illegally on a train, fallen off, "hurt" his back, then they'd have GIVEN him a house, car, driving lessons etc etc etc.BLIAR'S UK: A Sh*t heap! Everything for those that won't, or don't. Nothing for those that do, and as for justice? Forget it.Couldn't agree more. Though doesn't help with the original post. SorryDotty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BJSLIV Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 So you told the DVLA that you were exporting the car, cashed in the tax, and then didn't bother to do anything about registering the car. Seems to me that they were acting perfectly correctly in impounding a car which the system would show as untaxed and uninsured.Better get a move on to sort things out, they can put impounded cars through the crusher after seven days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owens88 Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 [quote user="thomas16"] I TAKE IT AWAY DUE TO HAVING UK PLATES AND FRENCH TAX. ALBEIT WE HAVE STILL NOT HAD THE OLD TAX REFUND. ANYHOW HE WILL BE BACK THIS WEEK. [/quote]Sounds like an expensive oversight rather than an attempt to defraud either system.Self inflicted wound it maybe, and I can sympathise with probably 1 in 5 cars on some of those streets having no tax or insurance at all at all.Should have had it burnt in Paris.(smile)Do finsih the thread with a result please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 If it has UK plates and no UK tax then it is definitely not road legal. Sorry, but that's the way it is. You may get away with it in France, but only while the French registration is being sorted out, and you definitely cannot legally return to Britain until it is either re-taxed or French registered. How did you apply to get the tax refunded? If you notified export by returning part of the registration certificate you did the right thing, but if you followed some of the advice and used the SORN declaration you could be in trouble. Sorry, but that's the way it is. If you are genuinely re-registering and had to return to Britain unexpectedly for good reasons then a sympathetic policeman may look on it more kindly, but this is not likely to include clamping companies who look for illegal vehicles as part of their brief.I am surprised you were even allowed into Britain as untaxed vehicles are automatically targeted by customs and police at ferry ports, and many use cameras to check validity of tax discs on entry. It is galling when there are so many illegal vehicles in both Britain and France, but unfortunately the fact that many others do it does not make it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceni Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 The rules are simple - a car registered in UK and on the roads in UK must be taxed (unless en route to an MoT station AFAIK). An SORN is surely invalid if the vehicle is being used on the roads. I saw a snippet on the news a few months ago about a local authority (Luton ?) intending to clear the streets and fill the crushers with untaxed vehicles - an excellent idea IMHOJohnnot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceni Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 p.s. not sure how this thread is connected to House Renovations but doubtless someone will explain.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 It was originally posted in the wrong section, but has now been moved to its logical home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony F Dordogne Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 For the amount of postings that this subject has in LF, I'm surprised that anybody wouldn't know what the regulations are for exporting cars, insurance and the like and the problems that you are likely to face if you return to the UK with a car that isn't street legal.As for re-registering in France, the system is so easy and has been so well described on here not having the registration changed and then going back to the UK in an untaxed (and not MOT'd?) car seems like asking for trouble.Even if the return was an emergency, if you take the risk you may have to pay the price which may be the loss of the vehicle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony F Dordogne Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Sorry, should have added that Tower Hamlets is a target area for DVLA because of the high number of untaxed vehicles registered in the area. As far as I know there's no proven link between untaxed vehicles and ethnicity so I don't see what the point being made was about 'illegals' in the area as the DVLA isn't responsible for immigrantion services in the UK but it is there to catch the scroats who don't have their cars street legal when so many other people do go to the trouble of taxing their car.Under the circumstances it seems that the husband was committing one or more offences in Tower Hamlets and so all the DVLA enforcers were doing was enforcing the law in England.Can't see what the argument is here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Thomas16Leaving aside all the other comments, and regardless of whether you knew what you were doing or not, here is the actual legal position that you are in.You brought your Landrover Discovery over to France having cashed in the UK tax disc. (I assume this was a permanent step because you are now living her?) . However, you did not import the car, you merely used it on the french public highway without going through the correct import process as required by french law. Driving an unregistered car is an offence which attracts a 750 euro fine. You did take out a french insurance policy, but as your vehicle does not comply with the legal requirements, the policy will likely be declared invalid in the event of any claim. Failure to have a valid insurance policy in place is an offence which attracts a 3,500 euro fine and a 3 year driving ban. The vehicle may also be subject to immobilisation or confiscation.Then your husband used the untaxed car to return to the UK. The vehicle will be still registered to you but recorded as having been untaxed/exported (assuming you notified the DVLA of this when you left the UK). According to the DVLA, "the registered keeper of an unlicensed vehicle could be fined a minimum of £1000. In addition to this, you will either be required to purchase a licence or declare SORN, pay arrears of duty accrued whilst the vehicle was unlicensed and pay a penalty of £80.As well as this, you could find your vehicle wheel-clamped by our wheel-clamping firm. It would cost you to have your vehicle released and you would also have to produce a valid licence disc or surety fee. If you did not pay this within 24 hours, we would impound your vehicle. If you did not pay the necessary release and storage fees, we would get rid of your vehicle, generally by crushing it. (See "Wheelclamping" on our website for further advice.)"However, if you only declared SORN when you cashed in the tax disc, then this is a another separate offence. The maximum penalty for making a false declaration by declaring SORN when the vehicle is actually used or kept on a public road is £5,000 and two years imprisonment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Well if Thomas 16 hadn't slit her wrists by the end of page one of this thread I'm sure she will have by now!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 But it shows that you need to know the law - ignorance is no defence. If you take a chance you may get away with it but you may not - no use crying if you get caught. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
le bouffon Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Yes,dickie ignorance is no defence and I absolutly agree with you 100%,no excuse,and that they posted on the forum only adds to why the car was taken back to the UK.Maybe Will or one of the other mods may know but there is an aloted time in which the law does allow the car and all it`s paper work re the import/export and if the car is in this time frame,then is there a case to claim the money spent geting the car back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dotty0 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 I am under the impression that it isn't actually a criminal offence, but a civil offence to not have car tax in the UK. Or have the powers to be changed the law on that and it passed me by.Dotty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony F Dordogne Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 As far as I know it's still the criminal offence that it's always been in the UK, at least from the 1950s to the late 1990s - if you want to argue about being nicked for no VEL or any other car documents you have to do so at a Magistrates Court and that makes the case criminal.The fact that you don't attract points doesn't make it less criminal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Riff-Raff Element Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 [quote user="Dotty0"]I am under the impression that it isn'tactually a criminal offence, but a civil offence to not have car tax inthe UK. Or have the powers to be changed the law on that and itpassed me by.Dotty[/quote]It probably was not an arrestable offence. Thanks to a recentchange in the UK, all offences are now arrestable. Including droppinglitter. And (technically) joining a queue in a public place that ismore than three people long unless doing so with the permission of yourlocal Chief Constable. Could add to the burden of paperwork, thatsecond one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dotty0 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 So am I correct in saying that one can be arrested for not having road tax, or whatever new name its now referred to. And this has been the case for some time?Dotty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jc Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Pity it's not a hanging offence!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dotty0 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 [quote user="jond"][quote user="Dotty0"]I am under the impression that it isn't actually a criminal offence, but a civil offence to not have car tax in the UK. Or have the powers to be changed the law on that and it passed me by.Dotty[/quote]It probably was not an arrestable offence. Thanks to a recent change in the UK, all offences are now arrestable. Including dropping litter. And (technically) joining a queue in a public place that is more than three people long unless doing so with the permission of your local Chief Constable. Could add to the burden of paperwork, that second one.[/quote]Is there a law against taking too much air in with a sharp intake of breath. If so I had better keep a look out for the busys.Dotty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now