A woman was fined £1,000 and summoned to court for motoring offences committed in a car that didn't belong to her.
Sarmite Reinholde had given her Audi A5 back to a finance company in October 2018 having used it for a 12 months. But years later she realised the authorities still believed she was the car's driver after being sent a growing number of fines to her old address - which she'd been oblivious to.
Four years after returning the car, the mum-of-one has clocked up more than a grand in fines which should never have been directed to her, and has had to defend herself in court. The 33-year-old has also been unable to remove a county court judgement on her name and six points from her licence.
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Things got so bad for Sarmite, who lives in South Wales, that she was even told she could lose her job working for an insurance company over the allegations.
Sarmite told Wales Online : “The first I heard of it was in July last year when I received a message from Preston Magistrates Court telling me I had the fine and six points on my licence and that my case had already been heard in court. As the case was in Lancashire to be honest I thought it was a mistake.
"There was no explanation or context to it, but I was told if I didn’t pay the bailiffs would be at my door. It was not a nicely worded letter at all and was very threatening.
“I’d had the car for work from October 2017 to October 2018 and then circumstances meant I had to give it back to the company, which I did.”
After Sarmite found herself in court on July 9 this year following a year-long battle to get the case looked at again, the DVLA has extended its sympathies to Sarmite, but has said it is not to blame for the situation. The agency said drivers of vehicles on finance should notify the DVLA themselves when they are no longer the vehicle's registered keeper, rather than assuming the company will do so.
Sarmite denies she is at fault for failing to carry out proper administrative work after transferring the car back to the company, and says she did notify the DVLA appropriately and the whole debacle has been unfair and damaging to her life. She pointed out that a staff member for the DVLA reassured her in an email in October 2020 that she would not be liable for any fines after she handed the car back.
Letters from the DVLA show Sarmite did notify the agency that she was no longer the driver of the vehicle in October 2020 - two years after she’d last driven the car. An email from a representative of the DVLA to Sarmite in October 2020 suggests she had done enough at that point to be immune to any offences which occurred from October 2018.
The email reads: “You were originally removed from our record as the current keeper when a new keeper updated via a V5C logbook on October 19, 2019. So this was recorded as your disposal date. You are now shown on our system as not having the vehicle from November 22, 2018, and any fines that happened after that date you are not liable for.”
Sarmite says this proves the DVLA was aware of the situation. But a representative of the DVLA also sent her a letter in October 2020 which suggests the email she’d received from them may have given her false hope.
It said: “Any statutory notice for an offence that took place after you sold the vehicle should be returned to the issuing authority giving what details you can about the sale of the vehicle. Only the issuing authority is in a position to make a decision based on the evidence you provide.”
Sarmite believes she is "not the only person this has happened to". During the court case, she said she sat in "disbelief" at what was happening to her. She continued: “I have never been in court and have never had points on my licence before. It has had a huge effect on my life. It has stopped me from using credit or making any large payments. I can’t even get a phone contract.”
Sarmite said she has been told by her lawyer that she will most likely need to return to court again to try to get the CCJ removed from her name, and might have to pay to have it removed. She said she now lives in "fear" that it will happen again, and is nervous when she hears the letterbox go - thinking another fine will fall through her door.
A DVLA spokeswoman said: “It is the registered keeper’s responsibility to notify the DVLA when they sell their vehicle. The quickest way to tell the DVLA if you’ve bought, sold or transferred a vehicle or to change an address is online. Our online services are easy to use and we urge all customers to use these where possible.”
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