My Toyota Yaris ended up too dangerous to drive and I had it SORNed 28/12/2022 with the hope of getting it towed to be looked at once businesses opened up in the new year. I live in a close with a garage in a block separate from my house without a driveway so unfortunately it stayed parked on the kerb way longer than I intended.

Life got busy and I had some health issues to deal with so the car was forgotten about and it was overwhelming to think about anything outside the day to day. On 10/03/2023 my car was clamped and early the next morning before I could pay the penalty it was towed away. I paid for it to be released from the pound, and the gentleman who towed it took it off my hands.

I received a letter dated 22/03/2023 with an out of court settlement payment offer of £85 for the offence of keeping an unlicensed vehicle, citing the date of 08/02/2023 when my car had been spotted in violation of the law parked where it was. It allowed me until 4/04/2023 to settle the fine which I did promptly.

In April I received a letter dated 20/04/2023 citing the same offence but the date of 10/03/2023 - when the car had been clamped - demanding another out of court settlement of £113 payable by 5/05/2023. The first letter was dated over 10 dates past the date of the offence that was cited in the second letter. The second later was sent nearly a month past the out of court settlement and the sale of the car to a third party of which DVLA had been informed and I received confirmation of. As it was a continuous offence how can the DVLA claim fines for different dates? If they can get away with this then what is to stop them sending me another demand for another random date of the same continuous offence? I have already made a payment for out of court settlement for said offence.

I disputed the issue and got a reply today stating that there are two cases for the same vehicle. Must I pay if it has been settled out of court already bearing in mind the original letter and the time allowed for settlement included the date quoted in the second letter? Hope I am clear. Btw the car was not my main car - I had bought it for my son's use who told me it had become unfit to drive due to sudden dangerous issues with the gearbox whilst driving.

Edited by B Kahn on 18/05/2023 at 20:18