The DVLA is reviewing how a 24-year-old car apparently belonging to somebody else came to be recorded against the Mayor of London’s name and date of birth — while crucial correspondence was delivered to the wrong address.
Sadiq Khan has been convicted and ordered to pay £340.84 for keeping an untaxed Nissan Micra — despite City Hall insisting that the Mayor of London does not own the vehicle.
The extraordinary case is now being reviewed by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency after court records reportedly showed that Khan’s name and date of birth were attached to the blue Micra on official records.
Adding to the mystery, correspondence about the prosecution was not sent to Transport for London’s offices at 5 Endeavour Square in Stratford. Instead, it went to 9 Endeavour Square — a nearby building whose top floor is occupied by Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen, Bar & Rooftop.
Even the court’s record of conviction was reportedly sent to the restaurant address.
Convicted without entering a plea
The Micra was first registered in 2002 and its vehicle tax expired in September 2025, according to court records seen by the Press Association.
The DVLA alleged that Khan was the vehicle’s keeper when it was found to be untaxed on 24 January 2026. The agency told the court that his name and date of birth appeared against the car in government records.
A letter seeking confirmation of the keeper’s identity reportedly went unanswered, and the case proceeded through the Single Justice Procedure.
Magistrate Surinder Gidda convicted Khan in his absence at Herefordshire Magistrates’ Court on 18 August after no plea had been entered. He was ordered to pay a £220 fine, £85 in costs and £35.84 in unpaid vehicle tax, bringing the total to £340.84.
The conviction notice reportedly warned that failure to pay within 28 days could result in further penalties, enforcement by bailiffs or a warrant to bring him before a court.
City Hall says the Micra is not his
City Hall officials have said that the Nissan belongs to neither Khan nor TfL, raising the prospect that the Mayor has been convicted over a vehicle with which he has no connection.
The central unanswered question is how Khan’s personal details apparently became associated with the car in the first place.
The DVLA confirmed that it is reviewing the case and investigating the circumstances of the prosecution after the conviction was brought to its attention by the Press Association.
At this stage, there has been no public explanation for how the registration occurred and no finding that Khan or anybody acting for him supplied the information.
The restaurant address mix-up
Khan chairs TfL as part of his role as Mayor. TfL’s offices are on the ninth floor of 5 Endeavour Square, but the court papers reportedly show that the DVLA used 9 Endeavour Square instead.
The two buildings are only a short walk apart, but the error may explain why Khan did not respond to the original correspondence or enter a plea.
For a prosecution generated largely through paperwork, the wrong address was a potentially decisive mistake: the case continued in his absence while letters addressed to him were being delivered to a building containing a Gordon Ramsay restaurant.
ULEZ threats provide context — but no proof
There is a politically charged backdrop to the mystery. After Khan expanded the Ultra Low Emission Zone across Greater London, some opponents reportedly discussed registering vehicles in his name in an attempt to make him liable for daily ULEZ charges.
There is currently no evidence that such an action caused this Micra to be recorded against Khan, and it would be wrong to present that possibility as an established explanation. It does, however, underline why the DVLA’s investigation into the origin of the registration could prove important.
How could the conviction be overturned?
The Single Justice Procedure was introduced in 2015 to handle large numbers of lower-level offences without a conventional public hearing. A single magistrate can decide a case from written evidence when a defendant has not requested a full hearing.
Khan may be able to seek the reopening of the case on the basis that he did not know about the proceedings because the correspondence went to the wrong address. If the case is reopened, he could ask the DVLA to withdraw the prosecution or enter a not guilty plea.
The DVLA could also apply to the court for the conviction to be reopened while it investigates what went wrong.
Until that review is complete, the court record remains real — but so do the substantial doubts surrounding it. What looked on paper like a routine case of unpaid vehicle tax has instead become a remarkable puzzle involving an apparently misregistered Micra, the Mayor of London and prosecution papers delivered to Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant.
Sources
Press Association court-record reporting republished by MyLondon