DVLA Clamping?

[Dadam]

The written request was made because they aren't allowed to give the owners details online or over the phone.
Previous searches for the vehicle details had been done online, which they had a record off. Had any of those been made by me?

As for asking again, you've not even asked until now what they do. Your best source for that information as opposed to wild speculation and accusations would be to do what I did, contact them. I never asked them what they do from the point of the check being made online. You can ask them at the same time what they actually do.

OK my bad, you're right I hadn't previously asked what they do. But you inquired about a vehicle involved in a particular incident; that was obviously the trigger for them to pull out the search records. I maintain they won't be actively looking at vehicles that merely come up in random searches, due to he reasons I've outlined. There must be 10s of thousands of such hits a year. Speculation, sure, but hardly wild; and I'm not sure where accusations come in!

I could ask them yes, not sure they'd tell me their procedures though. I could do a FoI request, but if I was them however I'd probably want to keep them under my hat, citing the public interest exemption.

 

[Alex321]

The written request was made because they aren't allowed to give the owners details online or over the phone.
Previous searches for the vehicle details had been done online, which they had a record off. Had any of those been made by me?

Having a record of searches done for a vehicle doesn't mean they do anything about it. Or that it brings the vehicle to their attention any more than it already was.

 

[classic33]

OK my bad, you're right I hadn't previously asked what they do. But you inquired about a vehicle involved in a particular incident; that was obviously the trigger for them to pull out the search records. I maintain they won't be actively looking at vehicles that merely come up in random searches, due to he reasons I've outlined. There must be 10s of thousands of such hits a year. Speculation, sure, but hardly wild; and I'm not sure where accusations come in!

I could ask them yes, not sure they'd tell me their procedures though. I could do a FoI request, but if I was them however I'd probably want to keep them under my hat, citing the public interest exemption.

I enquired about the vehicle owner(Registered Keeper) in writing, after the online search, on their site, showed no MOT or tax for the vehicle involved.
They already had records of previous searches done for that vehicle. Some of which were done by me, some not by me in the same timeframe.

 

[classic33]

Having a record of searches done for a vehicle doesn't mean they do anything about it. Or that it brings the vehicle to their attention any more than it already was.

As previously said it does show that the vehicle is on the road.

 

[Dadam]

I enquired about the vehicle owner(Registered Keeper) in writing, after the online search, on their site, showed no MOT or tax for the vehicle involved.
They already had records of previous searches done for that vehicle. Some of which were done by me, some not by me in the same timeframe.

I think we're talking at cross purposes a little. I get the above but what I'm trying to understand is whether those searches alone would trigger any actions.

As previously said it does show that the vehicle is on the road.

Not necessarily. As I previously said it indicates it might be, no more.

 

[Alex321]

As previously said it does show that the vehicle is on the road.

1. As also previously said by others, no it doesn't. It shows somebody took an interest in the vehicle.

2. What difference would knowing that make? All they can do is send letters to the registered keeper, which they do anyhow if the tax has expired.

 

[Cavalol]

I've just spent a few minutes looking up cars I used to own. A couple of older ones are showing no current MOT. Actually they are showing overdue for their first MOT! Which isn't that surprising as they would have been paper ones from the 1990s and won't have been migrated to the new database. I somewhat doubt I've sparked a wild goose chase for 2 cars that were probably melted down 25 years ago.

Have to confess I've spent hours trawling that site, looking up reg numbers of cars or motorbikes my dad or I used to own. Still hold on to a forlorn hope someone will emerge from the depths of a garage or lock-up somewhere. One bike I had was off the road for a while, but is now showing as taxed and a fairly recent change of log book date.

 

[DCLane]

It's definitely going on near me; they've clamped a few cars locally over the past months and there was someone in the queue ahead at the Post Office grumbling as he had to pay the fees, plus VED, to have his car released when they had just clamped it earlier today. I'm not sure he received the sympathy he was hoping for

 

[Dogtrousers]

I just went to the DVLA site and checked up on my old Merc that I sold to Webuyanycar for £300 3 years ago. It was MOT'd until about 6 months ago, which was good going, considering the ridiculously long list of advisories and the number of problems I was getting MOT-ing it when I sold it. It's also not been taxed for a similar period of time so I'm guessing that whoever owned it may have finally given up on it.