Would you try and fight this ticket?

[DirectionsForUse]

My mum is a fit, competent 70 something and a safe steady driver, never had an accident in 50 years of driving.

She does limited mileage these days and drives an old car, that she's had since new and is properly maintained, serviced every year etc.

She's also one of those people who wouldn't dream of driving anywhere, even moving the car off the drive, without a seatbelt. In fact she and Dad were wearing seatbelts routinely long before it was law and Dsis and I had car seats in the 70s when it was really very unusual.

Anyway, she was stopped by police for the first time ever. They wanted to inspect the car. I suspect as it's so old they expected to be able to issue a ticket for some fault or other, but they didn't find one.

Then, after asking her to get out of the car (thus removing her seatbelt) they've issued a fixed penalty for not wearing a seatbelt. It's £100, but can increase to £500 if you go to court.

She's furious at the corruption injustice, but also feels powerless. Anyone who knows her could vouch for the fact that she always wears a seatbelt, but there's no proof she was doing on this occasion.

Is there anything she can do? Would you just pay up?

@DirectionsForUse

They do keep and publish stats for this kind of thing though. Our local police FB often has things about the number of people fined for mobile phone use etc, so there is a gain, if only in making their stats look better.

That's to put people off from asuming they won't get caught, not to brag or get better stats!

Weird way of looking at it.

I have no idea, maybe bodycam will enlighten you, maybe not. You can but ask!

@FinallyHere

write a complaint to the Chief Constable, copying in the Police Commissioner, my local MP and the editor of the local press.

You won't get very far if you escalate a claim without doing as much as you can't to clarify yourself, as many PPs upthread have suggested.

For example, Chief Constable (more likely a clerical assistant ) reads the complaint, looks up the case, marks the complaint 'officer issued fixed find for non wearing of seat belt' CC will at best read and nothing much will happen.

If you ask to see the evidence, and your DM's version is correct. there is a chance it will get dropped at that point.

Only escalate once you have exhausted all avenues.

Not my experience. I think you run this with an appeal, but my experience is that public sector organisations often roll over if given loud enough challenge.

I also sit through cases like these all the time.

No court will take seven years for this to come to trial. Our court currently has severe delays and the max we are seeing is about 2 years.

There’s no way the court will fine someone £500 for not wearing a seatbelt. I’ve not once, in 20 years, seen this level of fine unless the offence was aggravated by something else.

Your mum doesn’t have to prove her innocent. The CPS has to prove her guilt. There may be bodyworn or dashcam footage that clears it up, or not. If it comes down to her word v the word of two coppers, it’s going to be them the magistrates believe.

Honestly, it’s just not worth the hassle of taking the whole thing through the court system. She’d be much better off just paying the fine and forgetting about it.

@LemonRoses I wasn't suggesting that she did have early dementia, just putting out the possibility that there are other explanations.
I certainly never thought my mum had dementia when odd little things happened at first l, it's only with hindsight that we can see that things had changed. It's also more common than people realise in people over 65.

Is it possible to try an experiment: get your Mum to sit in the car with and without the seatbelt and you look from behind the car to see if the seatbelt is visible. If you can't see it when she has it on then that might be the evidence you need

If she has an old car it’s less likely, but many cars have a warning alarm if you’re driving without the seatbelt fastened. If she has one of those it’d be a good sign that she hadn’t simply forgotten.

@JaniceBattersby

I also sit through cases like these all the time.

No court will take seven years for this to come to trial. Our court currently has severe delays and the max we are seeing is about 2 years.

There’s no way the court will fine someone £500 for not wearing a seatbelt. I’ve not once, in 20 years, seen this level of fine unless the offence was aggravated by something else.

Your mum doesn’t have to prove her innocent. The CPS has to prove her guilt. There may be bodyworn or dashcam footage that clears it up, or not. If it comes down to her word v the word of two coppers, it’s going to be them the magistrates believe.

Honestly, it’s just not worth the hassle of taking the whole thing through the court system. She’d be much better off just paying the fine and forgetting about it.

^ This, she wont win, lifes not always fair ^