The difficulty with the 1st idea is that if I find out the details of the owner and he is annoyed at being approached, admitting to him I have lied to DVLA won't help 1 little bit.

2nd - I will try. The one who gave me the details this AM didn't seem to know.

3rd - I don't have access to any car-sized pieces of private land within 300 miles of here and I think the police WOULD object to that!!

Tomorrow AM I will leaflet / knock on the doors of all the houses nearby asking them if they know anything.

UPDATE - since I started writing this, I have had a VERY interesting chat with DVLA, which will no doubt prompt a further outpouring of fire and brimstone from Tony

But seriously - I called them to try and get from the horse's mouth how to take over an abandoned vehicle. In the process of doing so, I gave them the reg no and they said it HADN'T BEEN TAXED SINCE 2009!!

They tell me I am advised to confirm no objection from the police (I have semi-done that already but nothing in writing) and council and then send off a form V62 to apply for the registration to be transferred into my name. I will need to write ABANDONED VEHICLE where it asks for the VIN no. They will try and contact the keeper and then if the keeper doesn't respond within X number of weeks I will get the V5 in my own name - takes 4-6 weeks.

Also that if it does get taken away in the meantime, I can get it released by whoever has taken it (police, council, DVLA) on production of the V5.

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Bloody fantastic news, good luck... maybe if possible move it onto your land just to prevent any scumbags damaging it.... . or ensure it doesnt look dumped, eg keep the tyre pressures up and remove any crap... even wash it...

:-)

Hello everyone

Before I start, I swear I didn't know this before yesterday evening.

I deliberately called the vehicle a Landrover and didn't give the location because, if it really was abandoned, I was worried about others trying to do what I was trying to do. It is in fact a 1993 LC 80 series, in London.

It isn't stolen. It isn't a ringer. It isn't abandoned. I won't be reporting it to the police or DVLA. And I won't be trying to claim it.

I was surprised that it hadn't been taxed since 2009 but there is a very good reason why it hasn't been busted for all that time. It's been on an overland trip!

When I came back from my own trip in 2008, various people contacted me for advice about overlanding and one of them came and saw me 2 or 3 times and bought some stuff from me in late 2008. He then went from not having a car at all to passing his test, buying his LC (which I never saw at the time), driving it across Europe and into Algeria for the start of his trip all in the space of a month (!) I did follow his trip for a while but had't looked at his site for some time - the last time he contacted me was way back last year when he'd reached Alaska and wanted to sell his vehicle, so wanted the text from the ad I had placed to sell my own vehicle.

I have posted re this on another website and was prompted by comments about the vehicle being possibly a ringer if it was listed as untaxed since 2009, and that I should get the police to examine it before sending the V62 off to DVLA. Equally I didn't want to do that as I knew they would simply tell the council/DVLA it was untaxed and it would get taken away. So, just in case there was any mention of this numberplate on any of the Landcruiser websites (like those for Landrovers) I googled it and I am glad I did, for a story came up about it getting towed by the police in India - they thought it was the car of a Pakistani spy!!

Now it all makes sense. Looking again at the overlander's website shows that sure enough, he didn't sell the vehicle in the USA but shipped it back to the UK. It was complete news to me that this person has moved into a house at the end of my road - or has sold the car to someone who does live there - and I have emailed him for a chat.

In any case, the vehicle was (finally) gone when I came home yesterday evening.

Thankyou and good night!

Mark

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Bloody hell... at least you have your answer...

Mystery over!
Sorry you didn't 'win' it, but you can have fun catching up. Pity I can't come along for the s.

It would be decent to warn him pretty fast that his number plate has been publicised on the Web as being on the public streets in UK while being untaxed for over 2 years.

Some rule abiding 'jobsworth' might delight in reporting it and landing him with a hefty DVLA penalty and back-tax bill.

Presumably while away it was SORN or listed as exported, otherwise he can expect their automatic penalties anyway when he 'surfaces'. There could also be further penalties and 'back-tax' bills for being on the street while under SORN or exported.

He can only 'back tax' it for January until tomorrow - after that applications paying for January will not be accepted. Recent enquiries for its status may have already flagged up an alert with DVLA.

(Sorry to be the Party-Pooper. I don't make or like the rules, nor the way they are implemented - I just try to make sure I know them!)

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Uh-oh - I didn't think of that. Getting him or anyone else in trouble over bl00dy road tax was the very last thing on my mind. But the car has been out of the UK for all that time and having just googled the numberplate again it doesn't come up in any more places than it did before, so I think it will be OK. Also bear in mind the car had already gone before I put up my last post that had that info.

The damage may already be done, but I have just edited the above post as you can see.

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for ilesmark

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'

Great story, expected a different out came, but that's a good one.

Cheers
RM

Me too.

I think you should still alert him of the risks, not so much arising from our interst, but of the possibilities generally.

He may be, like most people here, blissfully unaware of what can happen until it does. By then it is too late, as happens increasingly every day.
I get alerted of this daily elsewhere as victims seek advice.



I feel a RANT coming on ......

It is not a very nice 'public service' organisation we are talking about (and I continually bang on about, alone here and among many elsewhere). Their unstated aim is to collect penalties to supplement their own budget, often using their own incorrect version of Laws to cover their own inefficiency. They recoup unbelivably huge amounts this way.

They do this by regularly maintaining their own incorrect interpretation of the Acts, misquoting the Law and even distorting it, to extract penalties and out of court settlements. Having often lost the argument in Court is ignored (sadly only Magistrates Courts that have no legal precedent).
Appeals to Crown Court have never gone ahead. I know where they have withdrawn on the day sooner than allow a Judge to listen to the Appellant and make a ruling and thereby create a legally standing precedent.

Most people just pay up on getting their letters, but still well over 60 cases are included in a day's Hearing Listings at local Magistrates Courts.
If a Defendant turns up and looks and sounds confident they quickly 'withdraw' the case at the Courtroom door sooner than let the Magistrates hear the Defence's arguments ahead of having to rule on all the postal pleading and no-shows to be heard after.

The underlying problem is the British trust and ability to be sleep-walked into anything, even paying wrongly.

OVER ..... I feel better for that! Beer time (I am +4 hours!)

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Excellent, frothing rant, Tony!! You've earned your !

Have you ever considered becoming a columnist for the Mail?

I have already emailed our friend - if/when I hear back from him I will tell him.

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