To ignore speeding fine

[wowimamazing]

Found out I had a speeding fine sent to an old address. Didn’t respond obviously and it’s been 10 weeks and not heard anything else. Should I just keep quiet.

queenjane i did whimper in panic for a bit!
OP, was a biker and a new age traveller in my early 20s. dreadlocked, lived in a lorry, dog on a string. signed on as NFA to avoid Poll Tax. had to collect my giro in person and worked in a pub cash in hand on the side. my boyfriend dealt shitty class C drugs.

so, i’m not really built to own up to anything, plod-wise.

and even i’m not fucking stupid enough to ignore a speeding ticket and a failure to identify charge.

come on, OP. do the right thing. or don’t. you may struggle a bit to get the police to see it your way, though.

good luck, OP, and godspeed*

• limited to 40mph on single carriageway roads

Actually they don't have to prove you got the speeding notice. If they can prove they took reasonable steps to contact you ie sent to address you have registered with DVLA, and have proof of postage that is taken as proof you received it by the court.

Loads of people try the old 'I never got it/ it got lost in the post' line so this is a defence that is pretty much automatically dismissed.

I once got zapped but all the info was sent to somewhere else. I had no idea about it till a debt collection company managed to send me a letter to my parents address with a bill for just under £800. Due to not responding with information then not responding to my court summons, I was fined in my absence.

I had to go to court to state I had no idea about the letters and why, the fine was written off, and I expected everything to go back to stage one...eg, a new letter asking me to confirm who the driver was.

You have now 2 options. Pretend you haven't heard about this letter then when debt collectors come see if you're as lucky as me (but in my case I wasn't lying in court)

Or get in touch and pay the fine.

I think you should pay the fine. You were caught and should rightly pay it. I was happy to pay their original fine because why shouldn't I? Avoiding it by lying in court seems a low option.

Mind you, I once received a penalty notice for driving through a red light in Hull at 9.30 on a Thursday morning. Not only have I never been to Hull in my life, I could also prove that I had been standing in front of a class of 30 kids in Hertfordshire at the time in question, with said car in the school carpark. They dropped the charge without fuss. This was 25 years ago, mind, so possibly their camera footage was less exact than nowadays and read the number plate wrongly.

I had a speeding fine from the other end of the country - I'd never been there and my car was in the car park at work at the time of the summons. It was a registration plate scam - same registration, completely different make and model. It was up to me to prove it wasn't me rather than them to prove it was, and it was made very clear if I didn't provide proof I'd be liable. It was unnerving.

Similar happened to my Mum in the early 90s. She had a fiesta xr2 and the police phoned one night because it'd been involved in some sort of crime, they wanted to know if it had been stolen. Happily it was locked up in the garage and the plates had been cloned. I imagine it's a lot harder to do now given the ID etc that has to be provided to get number plates.

Back to the OP, it's been a long time since I've had any involvement in motoring law but I'd think if you admit to driving you might be able to take a fixed penalty of 3pp and a modest fine. Prosecutors were often happy with either the fail to provide drivers details or the speeding itself. I'd notify dvla of your change of address for your licence and registration document now though.

Thank you campervamp

My dd borrowed my car to go on holiday to the West Country.
She is fully insured to drive it. A week later I had a letter through the post. A £30 fine for driving in a bus lane. She's very familiar with the road, and knew exactly where she was going, and also had sat nav.
Unfortunately, the traffic system had been recently altered and not being actually resident in the area, she was unaware of the changes that had been made a couple of days before.
I paid the fine online within 10 minutes. I wouldn't even think of arguing the toss. Ignorance is no excuse. She was where she shouldn't have been. She should have observed the road signs.

If you 'really' weren't there, or didn't do it, you'll be able to prove it.
And OP appears to already have six points on her license. Probably mobile phone related. I have no sympathy with speeders. My dh is one and has collected more than a dozen speeding points, thankfully not all at the same time. But still . . .there's really no excuse. None.

Probably mobile phone related

Well you’re wrong judgey pants!

Well you’re wrong judgey pants

I don't mind admitting when I'm wrong. So. . .

what was it then? Something else you are entirely innocent of?

Er.. none of your business ??

Hypothetical question. I really don't care. Bet it wasn't your fault though and you are entirely innocent.

I'm not sure calling a poster "judgey pants" is relevant really. There are no good reasons for having 6 points on your license after all.

There are no good reasons for having 6 points on your license after all

I agree

SpamBurrito, to be fair, a Penalty Charge Notice for a bus lane is a bit different. It's 'civil enforcement' not a criminal offence. Crucially the charge is to the vehicle's keeper not the driver, making the question of who was driving irrelevant unless the vehicle was taken without consent. (And thereby making it easier for the council to get their money.)

It is our business. We have to share the roads with people like you who think they are above the law. Stop committing driving offences or get off the road.

OP, people are being goady, but you’re not presenting yourself very well on here. You do come across as being blasé about this. The fact that you have 6 points on your license and you refuse to say what they were for will make people think the worst. Not for speeding and not phone related. It doesn’t look good.

As far as the address change is concerned, I can understand how that could happen in the circumstances. But your car was obviously caught speeding; who was driving it if not you?

OP, good advice from exWife. Tackle this straight away whether with a solicitor or by yourself but don't do nothing.

The fact that the speeding fines are sent out by Royal Mail, not recorded delivery, can mean that you wouldn't necessarily have received the original letter and that is a defence. You've updated your address details now. When you receive the NIP letter, send it back by recorded delivery.

... and ignore the thigh rubbers on here, they're embarrassing and it's so cringey reading their gloating, goady posts.

It's good to know my bil isn't the only entitled driver out there.
Beginning to wonder if op is actually him tbh!

Maybe they should do away with all these pesky rules and let people be. Much easier.

Er.. none of your business ??

Yes it is, you made it that way by starting this ridiculous thread.

Why do we need to know the in's and out's, Fluffy? OP has nine points on her licence, she's said so. The rest is just add-up-the-points when she knows what she's dealing with.

I've seen far more ridiculous threads than this one too.

Thanks for the supportive posts.
I’m not as blase as everyone thinks. I’m sorting it.

Laughing at the idea of people supporting you for trying to dodge a speeding fine.

Or how about just not posting like a goady dick for the sake of it?

I am glad the OP is sorting it. Even happier that fortunately no-one was involved in a crash where speeding would have made injuries worse.

Or how about just not posting like a goady dick for the sake of it?

What you mean like the OP is? Wind your neck in witch OP wants to avoid facing up to a speeding fine, not her first offense either. Going on about how she’ll deny all knowledge/they’ll never catch up with her etc. Now that is being a goady dick.

I'll call it as I see it, thank you, Fluffy.