DVLA Data Error leading to wrongful arrest

[teejay26805]

This is a bit of an epic I'm afraid.

 

Many years ago, I was arrested for apparently driving whilst disqualified and failing to respond to a summons. What made matters worse, was that I was living with my (then) girlfriend's family and the police had been waiting for me to come home after work on a Friday.

 

Despite protesting my innocence, I was handcuffed and taken to Lanark police station and placed in the cells. At 2AM I was transferred to Paisley police station with talk of being further transferred to Newcastle. I remained in a cell in Paisley police station until Monday morning and refused access to a solicitor. "You're not in England now, sonny!" was the warden's response to that.

 

I was givcen access to aduty soicitor at the court on the Monday, explained my situation and that I had never been banned and that I had my licence to proove it. The case was ajourned for the prosecution to check their records. I retruned to court a number of times, each time the case was ajourned as the DVLA failed to provide correct evidence. Eventually the case was dismissed.

 

I enquired about wrongful arrest but the solicitor basically said I didn't have a chance and I should count myself lucky. Over the next several years I randomly received a new drivers licence, occasionally endorsed. When I queried this with DVLA I was told the "DVLA don't make mistakes". I eventually moved to London and received a court summons to appear in Sommerset for driving offences. Fearing a repeat experience, I queried this with the court and told if I didn't appear, a summons would be issued for my arrest.

 

To cut a long story short, I made numerous and repeated enquires with DVLA and the court and eventually spoke with staff at the fixed penalty office who gave some insight to the problem. They checked the driver number and I was told that the offences were by someone with a similiar name but same date of birth as me. A serving army corporal. I was given his name and advised to contact DVLA with my licence. Iwrote a complaint detailing my experiences, but the complaint was never answered. Instead I received a new drivers licence with a difference drivers number. I have kept the old licence and copied of all correspondence.

 

I appreciate thios all happened a number of years ago, dating back to 1990's and it took many years to resolve. However it was only fixed because of my perisitance and I have never received an apology or explanation for this.

 

Can anyone suggest if I have any recourse to complain again and what if anything I can expect?

[honeybee13]

Hi. I've popped some paragraphs into your post to make it easier for those advising to read it. Blocks of text are a nightmare on small screens like phones.

 

How recently has this error caused you problems?

 

HB

[Man in the middle]

Has anything recently happened that has caused you to raise this issue? No court (either civil or criminal) is likely to entertain a complaint that arose from a mistake that happened thirty years ago.

 

You claim for wrongful arrest was unlikely to have succeeded. The police obviously had reasonable grounds to suspect you had committed an offence and they would be entitled to arrest you on that basis. It is not "wrongful" to arrest you on such suspicion if it was based on information which they had no reason to believe was incorrect. 

[teejay26805]

Nothing recently. Although the original mistake stemmed back to 1994 (perhaps earlier), it wasn't sorted until 2005. During that time, I contacted DVLA several times about it. I'm more annoyed that my complaint was never answered. I could put it down to experience but it's difficult given the circumstances and it still angers me that they had numerous opportunities to fix it but didn't.

 

I appreciate your comment regarding wrongful arrest. That is effectively what the solicitor said.

Edited January 27, 2023 by teejay26805
Typo

[teejay26805]

Thanks HB - the most recent was 2005 when I had my licence corrected and reissued.

[Manxman in exile]

I would think that you have absolutely zero hope of getting any meaningful satisfaction for an error that originated in 1994 (or earlier) and was put right in 2005.

 

I don't know what correspondence you've had recently with DVLA but you could try writing to them, explaining what happened and ask them for an apology.  But if the error was put right 18 years ago I'd suggest that any apology you received, or even recognition of the problem, would just be an empty form of words and be meaningless.  That's if they got back to you at all.

 

If I were you and I was suffering no adverse consequences now, I'd put it behind me and forget it.  But if it would make you feel better, by all means write to them.  However, don't hold your breath waiting for a response...

[Man in the middle]

4 hours ago, teejay26805 said:

I could put it down to experience...

 

I think you will have to.