Disqualified for 12 months!

[bikerdude666]

Apologies for the long post...

I received a letter today from the DVLA, thought it odd as I have no tax due and not sold or bought anything. I was a little surprised to open it and find that they are asking me to surrender my license as I'm disqualified for 12 months! The letter all looked very official and proper, but I suspected it was possibly a scam to get people to log on to a website listed in the email, and harvest personal details. So I opened google and went to the DVLA check my license page, and was even more surprised to find that far from being a scam, they have actually got me listed as disqualified from 25/04/22.

Now wondering what the hell was going on I phoned the DVLA, 'sorry all our operators are busy please call again later'. Tried several more times and managed to get in a queue, estimated waiting time, 40 minutes (I should add, this was around 11am, I'd been awake since 2pm yesterday, at work all night, so was fairly tired).

While waiting for the seemingly single member of staff at DVLA to answer the phone I have another read of the letter. Very few details on there, but one interesting thing, I was apparently sentenced at Bodmin magistrates court, 282 miles away from me, and not been to Cornwall since last summer.

Still listening to the awful DVLA hold music, I decide to google to magistrates and give them a call on the other phone.

At last, someone who has someone to answer the phones! The courts phone rang twice and then someone picked up. I explained the rather odd situation of getting a letter stating I'm disqualified, and to send back my license, due to the offence committed (which having checked my license online I now knew was drug driving), but that I'm not in that area, have never had as much as a speeding ticket, not been to court, and this was the first I'd heard of it all.

She took my name and date of birth, and agreed that I was right, I hadn't been in court there, they had no record of my name or DoB at all. After about 5 minutes of discussing details and things, she's figured out that there was a case dealt with on that date, of drug driving, ending in disqualification, and that the person convicted happened to have the same first initial, and surname as me, and also happened to be the same age as me (though didn't say if the DoB was exactly the same), and what seems to have happened, is somehow my driving license number has been put on the paperwork for his conviction! FFS! Does no one check the details are correct?!

She's sent an urgent request to DVLA to get it removed from my license and put on the convicted drivers file, and also sent me an email explaining what has happened should I get stopped while driving.


I later phoned DVLA and actually managed to speak to a human after a mere 25 minute wait. Explained it all to him, and that it had been found what had happened, but was there a way they could speed up getting it sorted. Not overly helpful, they take 3 days generally to process court requests, it could be sooner, but could be longer. Annoying but not the end of the world, because I've got the email from the court to cover me if stopped, right? No, 'sorry sir, but you technically don't have a license at the moment until the system is updated, if you're found to be driving before the system updates you can be fined etc, if you have an accident your insurance is invalid'.

So now if they don't get it updated by close of office on Friday, it's going to cost me a days holiday, as I'll have to book Saturday off. If it's still not done by close of office Saturday afternoon, it costs me another 2 days holiday as I'll have to book Sunday and Monday too, as I start at 6am so long before they'd possibly do anything about it!

Absolutely ridiculous, surely someone there can have a look for the request from the court and process it manually to speed it up. I've done nothing wrong and stand to potentially lose 3 days holiday, or about £600 if I take it unpaid, as I don't really have 3 days holiday to burn!