18th August 2015

HONITON: DVLA clamp car in error

by Jack Dixon

THE Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has apologised to a former Honiton councillor whose car was mistakenly clamped during routine tax checks.

John Zarczynski, of Streamers Meadows, said he had been caused “great stress and embarrassment” by the blunder, which almost led to his wife missing an important hospital appointment.

Mr Zarczynski, a former deputy mayor of Honiton, returned home at around lunchtime on Tuesday August 4th to find his car clamped and plastered with a sticker declaring the vehicle as untaxed.

The notice instructed him to settle the bill within 24 hours or the car would be removed and taken into storage, with a £200 charge issued.

Mr Zarczysnki, who had in fact paid his road tax in full several months ago, said he was anxious about missing the hospital appointment and rang up straight away to complain.

Fortunately, officers were able to acknowledge the mistake and an operative was sent to remove the clamp later that day.

But Mr Zarczynski said he was concerned that other vehicles in Honiton may also have been incorrectly identified by the DVLA.

“I was panicking because my wife had a hospital appointment that afternoon,” he said.

“If it had been an emergency I would have been totally immobilised.

“I had to go to great lengths to resolve the matter and endured all the hassle of trying to get through on the phone – all because the DVLA was not doing its job properly. That is unacceptable.”

Mr Zarczynski said he believed there had been a sweep of the town and that other cars may have been incorrectly clamped.

He added: “This might not be the only case. How many of these other drivers are in the same position?

“The whole situation caused me great stress and embarrassment. Many of my neighbours must have thought I do not tax my vehicle.”

When contacted by Pulman’s View, the DVLA apologised for the mistake and stressed that vehicles being wrongly clamped was a rare occurrence.

A spokesman said: “We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to Mr Zarczynski.

“We process 44 million vehicle tax transactions each year and cases like this are very rare.”