Labour’s Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has been convicted and fined for allegedly failing to tax a vehicle, despite officials saying it does not belong to him.

Lord Khan was convicted via the controversial single justice procedure (SJP) over neglecting to tax a 24-year-old Nissan Micra.

However, City Hall officials say it is a ‘scam’ and the car does not belong to either the Mayor or Transport for London (TfL).

SJPs were brought on in 2015 as a cheaper method of dealing with low-level criminal cases, allowing magistrates to sit alone and in private to hand out convictions rather than sitting in open court. 

The mayor, 55, was found guilty by a magistrate last month of keeping an unlicensed vehicle in a criminal prosecution brought by the DVLA.

The magistrate, sitting in Herefordshire, convicted Lord Khan in his absence and ordered that he pay a £220 fine, £85 in costs and settle the £35.84 bill for unpaid tax on the Micra.

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.

Officers at the DVLA are now reviewing the case and investigating the circumstances of the prosecution. 

The Mayor, who became Baron Khan of Tooting after he was appointed to the House of Lords in July, now faces the possibility of having to appear in court in person to try to overturn the conviction. 

A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: ‘This is a scam, which is a crime. 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.’ 

It comes after a host of furious motorists pledged to register their vehicles in Lord Khan’s name in a protest against the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to cover the whole of London.

The protesters hoped to make him liable for the £12.50 daily charge for entering the zone.

The mayor was widely accused of waging war on motorists by Londoners after he expanded ULEZ and hiked the congestion zone charge.

Lord Sadiq Khan, pictured at Downing Street in July, has been fined for failing to pay tax on a Nissan Micra which he claims he doesn’t own

He is also considering introducing new charges for SUV drivers, it was reported earlier this year. 

Critics have dubbed the SJP ‘conveyor belt justice’, with magistrates deciding on hundreds of cases a day and sometimes spending less than a minute making each decision.

The system, which is currently under Government review, was criticised 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.

It has also been the focus of intensifying scrutiny thanks to regular incidents of sick and incapacitated people being harshly convicted of not paying their household bills.

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 chair of TfL as part of his mayoral role, and the organisation has its offices on the ninth 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 after no plea had been entered to the charge.

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 re-opened, 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.