Sadiq Khan’s car-tax conviction withdrawn after wrong vehicle was linked to him

A car-tax conviction against London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been withdrawn after the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency asked a magistrates’ court to reopen the case involving a Nissan Micra that was not his. Khan had been convicted in his absence last month over the allegedly untaxed vehicle. The ruling required him to pay a £220 fine, £85 in costs and £35.84 in unpaid vehicle tax. At a one-minute hearing at Hereford Justice Centre on Thursday, a panel of magistrates accepted the DVLA’s request to reopen the matter and marked it as withdrawn. Neither Khan nor a DVLA representative attended the hearing. A legal adviser told the magistrates that the case had been widely publicised and asked them to withdraw it on the agency’s request. The chair of the bench, Mrs Digings JP, confirmed that the matter had been reopened and withdrawn. City Hall officials said the 24-year-old Nissan Micra was not owned by Khan or Transport for London. A spokesperson for the mayor described the incident as a scam and said it was not the first time someone had falsely claimed that Khan owned a vehicle. The spokesperson added that the DVLA was aware of the behaviour. The case had been handled through the single justice procedure, a process in which magistrates decide cases in private and in Khan’s absence. The Guardian reported that the system has been criticised as “conveyor-belt justice” because magistrates can deal with hundreds of cases in a day, sometimes spending less than a minute on each. The episode comes amid continuing opposition from some motorists to the expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone. Khan has previously been the target of protests over the policy, and some opponents said they planned to register vehicles in his name to make him responsible for the daily £12.50 charge. The court’s withdrawal removes the conviction, which was based on the vehicle-tax case involving the Micra.