Sadiq Khan says he has fallen victim to a scam after he was convicted and fined for not taxing a 24-year-old Nissan Micra.
The Mayor of London, 55, was prosecuted last month by the DVLA for keeping an unlicensed vehicle and ended up being handed a £220 fine by a court in Herefordshire, after the case was dealt with in private in a fast-track court process.
City Hall has now insisted the Nissan Micra does not belong to Lord Khan and it has been wrongly registered in his name.
In a strongly-worded statement on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the mayor said he is the victim in this case and should not have been prosecuted and convicted.
“This is a scam, which is a crime,” the spokesperson said.
“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.”
After Lord Khan 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.
The prosecution was brought by the DVLA through the Single Justice Procedure, a controversial fast-track court process which allows magistrates to sit in private to deal with low-level criminal cases.
The Government is currently reviewing the process, after a slew of scandals including children being unlawfully prosecuted and sick pensioners being handed criminal convictions for not paying household bills while in hospital.
The DVLA has said it is investigating the circumstances of the prosecution of Lord Khan, and it is understood efforts are being made to urgently reopen the case in order to overturn the conviction.
The mayor was found guilty by a magistrate on August 18 after no plea was entered to the charge, and he was ordered to pay a £220 fine, £85 in costs, and settle the £35.84 bill for unpaid tax on the Micra.
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 mayor, who became Baron Khan of Tooting after he was appointed to the House of Lords in July, could have to appear in court in person to try to overturn the conviction, if the DVLA opts not to reopen the case itself.
The Single Justice Procedure was invented in 2015 as a cheaper method of dealing with low-level criminal cases, but has been dubbed “conveyor belt justice” by critics due to the speed that cases are dealt with.
The system 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.
In Lord Khan’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.
Lord Khan serves as the chairman 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 Lord Khan on August 18.
The court has also sent a record of conviction to the Gordon Ramsay restaurant, ordering Lord Khan 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”.
Defendants who believe they have been wrongly convicted of a crime in their absence can apply for the case to be reopened, typically by appearing in person in front of a judge to make a statutory declaration.
Lord Khan could argue that he did not know about the criminal case because the letters were addressed to the wrong building.
Once reopened, he could petition the DVLA to withdraw the prosecution if it can be shown that he has been wrongly accused, or enter a not guilty plea.
Alternatively, the DVLA could apply to the court itself for the case to be reopened.
Online records show the Nissan Micra was taxed again in February this year.
