London Mayor Sadiq Khan fined over untaxed car scam

Sadiq Khan’s office has revealed he was the victim of a scam that led to him being fined for failing to tax a car that did not belong to him.

The London mayor was found guilty last month under a system of “conveyor-belt justice”, in which magistrates decide on hundreds of cases a day, sometimes spending less than a minute on each.

City Hall officials say the 24-year-old Nissan Micra did not belong to Khan or Transport for London.

The mayor has been the focus of protests by motorists angry at the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone in London. Some said they planned to register cars in Khan’s name to make him liable for the £12.50 daily charge.

The prosecution was undertaken by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, which accused Khan of being the keeper of the vehicle when it was spotted as being untaxed on 24 January.

“This is a scam, which is a crime,” said a spokesperson for Khan, whose office said the DVLA had applied to reopen the case and withdraw the prosecution.

“It’s not the first time the mayor has been the 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 is expected to investigate the false registration.

A magistrate, sitting in a private hearing of the single justice procedure in Herefordshire, convicted Khan 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.

PA Media alerted the DVLA to the criminal conviction on Tuesday and its officials confirmed they were reviewing the case and investigating the circumstances of the prosecution.

Court documents show that DVLA letters addressed to the mayor about the unpaid tax bill were sent to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in east London instead of the nearby TfL offices.

The mayor faces the possibility of having to appear in court to try to overturn the conviction.

The single justice procedure was introduced in 2015 as a cheaper method of dealing with low-level criminal cases, allowing magistrates to sit alone and in private.

The system, which is under government review, was criticised in 2024 when about 59,000 train‑fare evasion convictions were overturned for being unlawful. It also emerged that children had been wrongly convicted in the secretive courts.

More scrutiny has come over repeated incidents of sick and incapacitated pensioners being convicted for not paying their household bills.

In Khan’s case, court records show he was prosecuted by the DVLA after the annual tax on the Micra, which was first registered in 2002, ran out last September.

The DVLA has been approached for comment.