3 days ago
Pensioner, 82, convicted of not paying car tax while in hospital having toe amputated
An 82-year-old pensioner has been convicted of not paying car tax while he was in hospital having a toe amputated.
The OAP, who is in assisted living in Liverpool, was pursued through the criminal courts by the DVLA when the bill went unpaid last December.
When prosecuted in the scandal-hit Single Justice Procedure, a secretive fast-track court system, the octogenarian wrote in to explain his medical woes – even including a copy of a hospital treatment record.
But it was not enough to avoid a criminal conviction for keeping an unlicensed vehicle.
Elderly and vulnerable people are regularly harshly convicted over unpaid household bills in the Single Justice Procedure, a system dogged by scandals in which magistrates sit in private to deal with low-level criminal cases.
The Ministry of Justice is considering reform, having promised last November a 'fair and effective' system while hinting at 'fundamental reform'. But eight months later, no significant changes have being made.
The Liverpool pensioner was caught out over tax on his 16-year-old Mercedes which expired at the end of October last year.
'I was in hospital getting my toe amputated in November, and completely forgot to tax my car', he wrote, in a note to the court.
'I apologise.'
One of the flaws in the Single Justice Procedure is that, unlike open court, there is no prosecutor present when a magistrate deals with a case.
The fast-track design of the system means prosecutors – like the DVLA – do not see mitigation letters, which sometimes contain vital information on a defendant's circumstances, unless a magistrate specifically requests that they look at it to consider the public interest of the prosecution.
The DVLA itself has called for a change in the system, so that all mitigation letters are considered before a case goes into court. But the government has not yet decided whether to act on that suggestion, and faces pressure from the BBC not to follow through on that reform.
The pensioner, who continued to receive medical treatment for weeks after the big toe on his right foot was amputated, pleaded guilty to the offence in writing.
He was given a discharge last week by a magistrate sitting in Ipswich, with an order to pay £64 in unpaid car tax. Since the case was not withdrawn, he will also have a criminal conviction.
Magistrates called for changes to the Single Justice Procedure as long ago as March 2024, putting forward a 12-point plan for change. But the Conservative government under Rishi Sunak failed to act, while Labour has conducted a consultation which ended in early May.
The Standard's long-running investigation into the system has uncovered criminal convictions recorded against dementia patients, care homes residents, people with severe mental health difficulties, and even dead people.
Tens of thousands of rail fare evasion convictions had to be quashed after rampant abuse of the courts was uncovered, while unlawful convictions against children have also emerged.
Despite the mounting scandals, the Ministry of Justice insists that there have been no recorded miscarriages of justice due to the Single Justice Procedure.
It also makes the curious claim that prosecutors play the same role in the fast-track system as they do in open court, despite being completely absent from Single Justice Procedure hearings.
