Man with dementia convicted over car he did not drive

A Greater Manchester pensioner with severe dementia has been convicted for not insuring a car he is no longer able to drive.

The 77-year-old from Middleton was prosecuted by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) after failing to pay a fine he received.

Court papers show the pensioner is now "confused much of the time", unable to manage his own affairs, and has no memory of receiving the penalty in August last year.

Despite his brother's attempts to argue his case, the man was convicted of keeping a motor vehicle which does not meet insurance requirements.

The man stopped using his Peugeot in December 2024 when a doctor first diagnosed him with dementia.

But after mistakenly telling a doctor he still drove, the DVLA sent out a fine notice to the pensioner last August.

This then moved to a prosecution when the penalty was not paid.

His brother was first alerted to the problem when the DVLA opted to bring a criminal prosecution earlier this month, and he sent a letter to the court spelling out the circumstances behind the unpaid bill.

"(He) is a 77-year-old pensioner who is suffering from severe dementia," the man's brother wrote.

"His illness became prevalent in the latter part of 2024.

"He was officially diagnosed in December 2024.

"He was advised not to drive from then on.

"Around the Spring of 2025, it was agreed that I would purchase the vehicle from him. So I arranged for the vehicle to have a new MOT.

He said his brother did not drive at all in 2025 - but wrongly told a doctor during one of his medical assessments that he "was still driving".

"The severity of his dementia causes memory loss, resulting in him being confused much of the time," the brother continued.

"He is now incapable of managing his affairs to any degree and therefore I have only just become aware of this issue.

"[He] has no recollection of receiving any letters regarding this.

"I am currently seeking to obtain Power of Attorney to enable me to handle his affairs for him."

The prosecution at Derby Magistrates' Court was brought under the Single Justice Procedure (SJP), a fast-track court process in which magistrates sit privately to rapidly deal with low-level criminal cases.

Magistrate Louise Hammond accepted a guilty plea entered on his behalf from his brother, and decided to impose a six-month conditional discharge rather than a fine.

The Single Justice Procedure is currently under review by the Labour government following complaints that it is overly secretive.

It has been alleged that vulnerable people, sick pensioners, and hospital patients are being unfairly convicted.

The DVLA said it urged anyone who received a letter about enforcement action "to get in touch with us if there are mitigating circumstances we need to know about".

It said it brought prosecutions when efforts to make contact and settle matters out of court had been unsuccessful.

The DVLA added that the power to refer a mitigation letter back to a prosecutor for consideration of the public interest was currently something that lay with magistrates.

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