Khan convicted in car tax ‘scam’ for vehicle he denies owning

London Mayor Sadiq Khan Fined After Being Convicted Over a Car He Says Was Never His

Constantvpn.com – Sir Sadiq Khan, the 55-year-old Labour mayor of London, has been formally convicted and ordered to pay a court bill of £340.84 over a blue Nissan Micra that City Hall insists was never his property. The conviction, handed down last month by a magistrate sitting in Herefordshire, stems from a criminal prosecution brought by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for keeping an untaxed vehicle on the road. Khan was not present in the courtroom when the verdict was delivered.

The case, which unfolded through England’s fast-track Single Justice Procedure, has drawn widespread attention because of the identity of the accused and the apparent administrative errors that led to his prosecution. According to court documents, official DVLA correspondence concerning the unpaid vehicle tax was dispatched to the address of a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in east London rather than to the nearby Transport for London (TfL) headquarters where the mayor’s office operates.

The Vehicle and the Prosecution Timeline

The car at the centre of the dispute is a 2002-registered Nissan Micra, now 24 years old. Its annual vehicle excise duty — commonly known as road tax — expired in September of last year. On 24 January, DVLA officers recorded the vehicle being driven untaxed. Government records at the time listed Khan’s name and date of birth as the registered keeper of the car.

A confirmation letter, intended to verify the identity of the vehicle’s owner, was sent out in January. Because it was addressed to the wrong building, it went unanswered. With no plea entered against the charge, the DVLA proceeded to a criminal prosecution on 18 August. The magistrate, conducting a private hearing under the Single Justice Procedure, found Khan guilty of keeping an unlicensed vehicle and imposed a £220 fine, £85 in court costs, and an order to settle the outstanding £35.84 tax bill.

The court’s record of conviction was also sent to the Gordon Ramsay restaurant address, with a directive that Khan settle the full £340.84 within 28 days or face escalating penalties including increased fines, bailiff action, or what the order described as “a warrant for your arrest to bring you to court.”

City Hall’s Response

Officials at City Hall moved quickly to distance the mayor from the vehicle. They stated plainly that the Micra did not belong to Khan or to TfL. A spokesperson for the mayor framed the episode in stronger terms:

“This is a scam, which is a crime. It’s not the first time the mayor has been victim of a scam involving people falsely stating that Sadiq is the owner of a vehicle. Such behaviour is illegal, and the DVLA are aware.”

The spokesperson added that the DVLA was already on notice of the pattern and that the agency had been made aware of the situation.

What Happens Next

Khan’s adviser told BBC London that the DVLA was “urgently” examining whether to reopen the case with a view to withdrawing the prosecution entirely. The agency will also investigate the circumstances of the false registration that placed the mayor’s name against the vehicle in official records.

Under English procedure, a defendant who believes they were wrongly convicted in their absence may apply to have the case reopened. Typically this involves appearing personally before a judge and making a statutory declaration. Khan could argue that he had no knowledge of the criminal proceedings because all correspondence was misdirected to a restaurant rather than his office. Once the matter is reopened, he could petition the DVLA to withdraw the charge if it can be demonstrated that the accusation was mistaken, or alternatively enter a plea of not guilty. The DVLA itself could also apply to the court for the case to be reopened.

The Wider Context: ULEZ and Vehicle Tax

The episode gained particular resonance because of Khan’s recent expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to cover the entirety of Greater London. Following that policy change, the mayor faced a wave of public anger, including from motorists who announced plans to register their own vehicles in his name — supposedly to make him financially liable for the £12.50 daily ULEZ charge. While that particular threat was largely rhetorical, it underscored how easily a high-profile name can become entangled in bureaucratic systems.

Vehicle excise duty in the United Kingdom is an annual tax levied on most motor vehicles. Owners must keep their tax current; driving an untaxed car on a public road is a criminal offence, not merely a civil matter. The DVLA enforces this through a combination of automated number-plate recognition, roadside checks, and, where necessary, prosecution. The Single Justice Procedure, introduced to speed up minor criminal cases, allows a single magistrate to handle straightforward matters without a full court hearing — a process that, in this instance, produced a conviction for a man who was neither present nor, by his own account, the owner of the vehicle in question.

Whether the DVLA ultimately withdraws the charge, whether the conviction is quashed on reopening, or whether the matter proceeds further remains to be seen. What is clear is that a combination of a misdirected letter, a false registration entry, and a fast-track judicial process produced a criminal conviction for the Mayor of London over a car he says he never owned.