London mayor Lord Sadiq Khan is convicted and fined for ‘failing to tax Nissan Micra that doesn’t belong to him’
Developing story first seen 3 hours ago
The DVLA is now reviewing the circumstances of its prosecution of London Mayor Lord Sadiq Khan, after it emerged the case may be linked to a ULEZ protest campaign in which motorists pledged to register vehicles in his name to make him liable for charges. Lord Khan now faces the prospect of having to appear in court in person if he wants to overturn his conviction for failing to tax a 24-year-old Nissan Micra, which was handed down in his absence under the single justice procedure (SJP). The mayor, who became Baron Khan of Tooting after joining the House of Lords in July, was widely accused by motorists of "waging war" on drivers after expanding the ULEZ zone and raising congestion charges, and is also reportedly considering new charges for SUV drivers.
Court records show the tax on the blue Nissan Micra, first registered in 2002, lapsed in September last year and the DVLA logged it as untaxed on 24 January, after which an unanswered letter triggered the prosecution. Magistrate Surinder Gidda, sitting privately at Herefordshire Magistrates' Court, convicted Lord Khan on 18 August, fining him £220 plus £85 costs and £35.84 in unpaid tax. DVLA correspondence had been misdirected to a building housing Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen restaurant, a two-minute walk from TfL's actual Stratford offices, and a record of the conviction was also sent there in error.
- DVLA now reviewing how the Khan car-tax prosecution proceeded unchallenged.
- Khan may need to appear in court to try overturning the conviction.
- Case may stem from ULEZ protesters registering cars in Khan's name.
New here? Start with this
Sadiq Khan has been Mayor of London since 2016 and, since taking on the role, has expanded the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) across the capital and raised the congestion charge, both of which have proved unpopular with many drivers. Some opponents of these policies reportedly encouraged people to register vehicles in Khan's name as a form of protest, meaning DVLA records could show him as the registered keeper of cars he does not actually own.
The DVLA is the government agency responsible for vehicle registration and enforcing car tax rules in the UK. When a vehicle's tax lapses and letters go unanswered, the DVLA can prosecute the registered keeper, often through the single justice procedure, a system that allows minor offences to be dealt with by a magistrate without the defendant appearing in court. Khan was convicted this way over an unpaid tax bill on a Nissan Micra linked to his name.
This case matters because it touches on Khan's high-profile and contested record on driving policy in London, as well as questions about how reliable DVLA and court processes are when someone's identity may have been used without their knowledge or consent.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of the campaign against Lord Khan argue that his expansion of ULEZ, hikes to the congestion charge and now-mooted SUV levies have imposed real financial strain on ordinary motorists, tradespeople and small businesses who feel they were never properly consulted. From this view, the vehicle-registration protest, however mischievous, was a legitimate and pointed way of dramatising how automated, impersonal enforcement systems can catch out the innocent, and the fact that a mayor himself could be wrongly convicted and fined shows exactly the kind of bureaucratic overreach drivers have been complaining about for years.
The case against
Defenders of Lord Khan and the wider clean-air agenda argue that ULEZ and congestion charging are evidence-based measures to cut pollution and save lives, particularly for children and those with respiratory illness, and that unpopularity with some drivers does not make the policy wrong. On the specific case, they would say using someone's name to register a vehicle without consent, whatever the political motive, is a form of harassment that exploits an administrative loophole rather than a fair protest, and that the DVLA's mistaken prosecution and misdirected correspondence reflect a systemic case-handling failure unrelated to the merits of the mayor's transport policies.
Full account
The Mayor of London, Lord Sadiq Khan, has been convicted and fined in a criminal case for failing to tax a 24-year-old Nissan Micra, even though City Hall says the vehicle belongs neither to him nor to Transport for London. The conviction was secured last month by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) using the single justice procedure (SJP), a fast-track system in which a magistrate sits alone, in private, to rule on low-level offences. A magistrate in Herefordshire found the 55-year-old peer guilty in his absence of keeping an unlicensed vehicle and ordered him to pay a £220 fine, £85 in costs, and the outstanding £35.84 road tax bill on the blue Micra, which was first registered in 2002.
The case took a stranger turn when court papers showed that DVLA correspondence about the unpaid tax had been sent not to Transport for London's offices but to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant nearby in east London, raising serious doubts about whether the mayor was ever properly notified or indeed the right person to pursue. After the Press Association drew the DVLA's attention to the conviction, the agency said it was now reviewing the case and looking into how the prosecution had come about. Lord Khan, who was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Khan of Tooting in July, may now have to attend court in person if he wishes to have the conviction overturned.
The episode has revived criticism of the DVLA's pursuit of Lord Khan over vehicle taxation, following a campaign by disgruntled motorists who said they intended to register cars in his name in protest at his expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone across all of London and increases to the congestion charge. The idea was reportedly to leave the mayor personally liable for the £12.50 daily Ulez charge. Lord Khan has also faced scrutiny over reported plans to consider additional charges for SUV drivers.
Beyond the specifics of the mayor's case, the episode has renewed scrutiny of the single justice procedure itself, introduced in 2015 to process minor offences more cheaply by letting magistrates decide cases alone and out of public view. Detractors call it 'conveyor-belt justice', pointing to magistrates working through hundreds of cases a day, sometimes in under a minute each. The procedure is currently under government review after roughly 59,000 train fare-evasion convictions were quashed in 2024 for being unlawfully issued, with children found to have been wrongly convicted, and after repeated reports of vulnerable or unwell people, including pensioners, being convicted over unpaid household bills.
Where outlets differ
The Daily Mail frames the story around the mayor's ULEZ and congestion-charge policies and his potential SUV levy, giving more space to the motorists' campaign to register vehicles in his name, and notes it had contacted Lord Khan's office for comment.
The Guardian places greater emphasis on the mechanics and track record of the single justice procedure itself, leading with the 'seconds to decide' framing, and gives the precise date (24 January) the vehicle was recorded as untaxed, which the Mail's excerpt omits.
The Guardian's version notes the DVLA had been approached for comment at time of publication, while the Mail's account instead highlights that it had contacted the mayor's office directly.
More coverage