An elderly woman found herself facing prosecution, not for driving dangerously, but for a forgotten piece of paperwork. Her car, a silent fixture in her garage for over eighteen months, became the center of a legal issue she was unaware of.
Court documents revealed a simple oversight: a Statutory Off Road Notification, or SORN, hadn’t been completed. Despite not driving and having lapsed insurance, the technicality triggered a legal process that reached her doorstep.
Her son-in-law stepped forward, explaining the situation to the court. He detailed his mother-in-law’s declining health and the challenges posed by dementia, emphasizing the car hadn’t moved since she was no longer able to drive.
The prosecution, handled by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, initially issued a fixed penalty notice, which went unpaid – not through defiance, but through unawareness. The family only discovered the charge when a notice from the Single Justice Procedure arrived in the mail.
The Single Justice Procedure, introduced in 2015, aims for swift resolution of minor offenses. Notices are sent, allowing a guilty plea or a request for a hearing. Silence, or a guilty plea without context, can lead to a verdict by a single magistrate.
However, this system is now under scrutiny. Critics argue that crucial mitigating details, like medical histories, often don’t reach the prosecutor, leading to potentially unjust outcomes. The DVLA itself has voiced concerns about this lack of information.
In this case, the magistrate issued an absolute discharge, meaning no fine or costs were levied. Yet, the incident highlights a growing concern about fairness within the Single Justice Procedure. The woman’s V5C logbook remains missing, adding another layer to the complexity.
A recent review, led by retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Brian Leveson, has called for greater transparency and safeguards to ensure mitigating circumstances are always considered. The system processed over 4,000 cases in the same week this case came to light, raising questions about the scale of the issue.
The incident serves as a stark reminder of how easily vulnerable individuals can become entangled in legal processes, and the urgent need for reform to ensure justice is truly served in all cases.
