Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan says he’s been the victim of a “scam”, with his conviction and fine over an untaxed Nissan Micra now being withdrawn by the DVLA.
City Hall officials said that the 24-year-old car does not belong to either the Mayor or Transport for London (TfL).
The Labour politician, 55, was found guilty by a magistrate last month of keeping an unlicensed vehicle, in a criminal prosecution brought by the DVLA.
The magistrate, sitting in a private hearing of the Single Justice Procedure in Herefordshire, convicted Sir Sadiq in his absence and ordered that he pay a £220 fine, £85 in costs, and settle the £35.84 bill for unpaid tax on the Micra.
But a spokesperson for Sir Sadiq insisted he was victim of a “scam”.
He said: “This is a scam, which is a crime. It’s not the first time the Mayor has been victim of a scam involving people falsely stating that Sadiq is the owner of a vehicle.
“Such behaviour is illegal, and the DVLA are aware.”
The DVLA has now said that a criminal prosecution against Sir Sadiq will be withdrawn at a hearing at Hereford Magistrates' Court on Thursday.
After Sir Sadiq expanded the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) to cover the whole of London he faced a wave of protests, including from motorists who said they planned to register their car in the Mayor’s name – supposedly to make him liable for the £12.50 daily charge.
After the Press Association flagged the criminal conviction to the DVLA on Tuesday, officials confirmed they were reviewing the case and investigating the circumstances of the prosecution.
In a further twist, court documents show that DVLA letters addressed to the Mayor about the unpaid tax bill were sent to Gordon Ramsay’s east London restaurant, instead of the nearby TfL offices.
The Single Justice Procedure was invented in 2015 as a cheaper method of dealing with low-level criminal cases, allowing magistrates to sit alone and in private to hand out convictions rather than sitting in open court.
Critics of the system have dubbed it “conveyor belt justice”, with magistrates deciding on hundreds of cases a day and sometimes spending less than a minute making each decision.
The system, which is currently under Government review, was rocked in 2024 when around 59,000 train fare evasion convictions had to be overturned for being unlawful and it emerged that children had been wrongly convicted in the secretive courts.
It has also been the focus of intensifying scrutiny thanks to regular incidents of sick and incapacitated pensioners being harshly convicted of not paying their household bills.
In Sir Sadiq’s case, court records seen by the Press Association show he was prosecuted by the DVLA after the annual tax on the blue Nissan Micra, which was first registered in 2002, ran out in September last year.
The DVLA accused Lord Khan of being the keeper of the vehicle when it was spotted as being untaxed on January 24, telling the court that his name and date of birth appear against the car on official records held by the Government.
The agency said a letter asking for confirmation of the identity of the car owner went unanswered in January, leading to a criminal prosecution.
Sir Sadiq serves as the chair of TfL as part of his mayoral role, and the organisation has its offices on the 9th floor of 5 Endeavour Square in Stratford.
But court papers show the DVLA sent its letters to 9 Endeavour Square, a two-minute walk away from the TfL base, in a building where Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen, Bar & Rooftop occupies the top floor.
Magistrate Surinder Gidda, sitting at Herefordshire Magistrates’ Court, convicted Sir Sadiq on August 18 after no plea had been entered to the charge.
The court has also sent a record of conviction to the Gordon Ramsay restaurant, ordering Sir Sadiq to pay the £340.84 court bill within 28 days or face the prospect of increased fines, bailiffs, or even “a warrant for your arrest to bring you to court”.
