Sadiq Khan's Car Tax Conviction Formally Withdrawn
2 sources · United Kingdom
Who reported this
- The Guardian
- The Independent
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.
The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.
Every source for this story reports from United Kingdom.
Every outlet covering this story shares the same political lean; read with that in mind.
A car tax conviction against the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been formally withdrawn following a request by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). The decision was made by a panel of magistrates at Hereford Justice Centre during a one minute hearing on Thursday, where neither the mayor nor a DVLA representative was present.
Lord Khan had been found guilty on August 18 for keeping an unlicensed 2002 Nissan Micra. He was ordered to pay a 220 pound fine, 85 pounds in costs, and 35.84 pounds in unpaid tax. The conviction occurred through the Single Justice Procedure, a fast track process where magistrates deal with low level criminal cases in private. One source described this system as conveyor belt justice.
City Hall stated that the vehicle does not belong to the mayor and that he was the victim of a scam. A spokesperson noted that this is not the first time people have falsely claimed the mayor owns a vehicle. The reports note that some motorists, protesting the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone, had previously suggested registering cars in the mayor's name to make him liable for daily charges.
Court documents indicate that DVLA letters regarding the unpaid tax were sent to a restaurant in east London rather than to Transport for London offices. While the DVLA requested the withdrawal of the case, the agency has not provided an explanation for how the prosecution occurred.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- Outlets of this lean framed the event as the mayor being the victim of a criminal scam and criticized the fast track judicial process.
Sources
100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.