A woman has been criminally convicted over unpaid tax on her late mother’s car, the day after she passed away.
DVLA brought a prosecution against the 48-year-old when it was alerted to the untaxed Volkswagen in January.
The woman, from Barnsley, faced a prosecution through the controversial Single Justice Procedure, and wrote in to explain that her mother – the owner of the vehicle - had died.
Despite the circumstances, the criminal case was not referred back to the DVLA for further consideration of the public interest of a prosecution, and she was landed with a conviction.
In her hand-written letter, the woman explained that the 20-year-old car had been sat in her mother’s garage with a dead battery, which she replaced when selling the vehicle in April.
“She passed away on January 10, 2025”, she wrote, and sent in a copy of the death certificate as proof.
“The car was never on the road but I did tax it before sale.”
The Single Justice Procedure was set up to deal with low-level criminal cases, with magistrates sitting in private and taking decisions based on written evidence alone.
The woman ticked ‘guilty’ on the form, admitting the offence of being the keeper of an unlicensed vehicle on January 11 – the day after her mother had died.
But she went on to write: “I don’t know what to plead but the circumstances have been described overleaf.
“I do not want to go to court so if these circumstances are not eligible I will pay any fines out of my savings.”
She also disputed the DVLA’s suggestion that she had become the registered keeper of the car in November last year.
“My mother was still alive then and would not have made me a keeper”, she wrote.
“I have my own car and had she done this she would have told me.
“I am very confused by this.”
The government launched a consultation on reform of the Single Justice Procedure in March, after The Standard’s long-running investigation exposed deep flaws in the fast-track justice system.
Under the current set-up, prosecutors – like the DVLA – do not automatically see mitigation letters, so miss the chance to withdraw prosecutions that turn out not to be in the public interest.
The agency has now supported a reform to the system that would see all mitigation reviewed by prosecutors before cases go to court.
Courts Minister Sarah Sackman is said to be considering responses to the consultation, which closed two months ago, with no timetable yet set for reform.
The Single Justice Procedure deals with more than 800,000 criminal cases each year, and has continued to operate unreformed through the growing scandal around its flaws.
In recent weeks, cases have emerged involving a widow prosecuted over a car tax blunder just after her husband had died, and a pensioner with dementia being prosecuted for not keeping up with TV Licence payments.
In the case of the woman from Barnsley, the magistrate gave her a discharge and rejected the DVLA’s application for £63.75 in unpaid tax and £85 in costs. She will, therefore, not have anything to pay, but will still have a conviction recorded against her name.
