Partner just told me about £1k fine

[Ontherocksthisyear]

So my partners just nonchalantly told me he is in online court tomorrow to dispute a speeding fine. He said he told me about this fine, just before Christmas. I assumed it was about £50 so didn't really enter into much conversation about it. He's said it was £1k, which he failed to add when he originally told me. Maybe my fault for not asking at the time. We share a house together of 3 years and have an 8 month old DS. I am now pretty angry that he has only now just told me about the fine being £1k and that he's in court tomorrow. He's known this court date for 2 weeks apparently. AIBU here? He doesn't see why I am angry and said he wouldn't have been of it was the other way around and I'd of just told him this.

He's not told you before because he's hoping to talk his way of it, frankly, he has very little chance of that if he's owed them money for 3 years. Amazed by how many posters are saying only £1000, bugger only, that's a lot of money when you're getting absolutely nothing in return.

I agree, but the appropriate response to OP would have been "Yeah, sorry, I've screwed up" and not "Did it affect you? No, then my business is my business."
Not only is he a careless sod, he's rude, disrespectful sod.

We couldn’t afford to lose £1k as a family.

I would expect to be told about all of this ages ago!

I also didn’t realise about updating log book. Off to find mine!

He actually said to OP - the mother of his 8 month old DS - "Did it affect you? No, then my business is my business." Of course it affects her - that's £1k lost from the family's finances which he wouldn't even have mentioned to her unless she'd asked. And forgetting the money, what decent, respectful person speaks like that to their partner? Particularly when they're in the wrong? Oh yeah, OP's DP - and you, apparently!

Of course he said he'd be fine if you had just told him. That's to shut you up so you don't feel you can't be fine.

No, there's more too this. Courts only write to employers directly to have it deducted straight from wages, after other avenues have already been exhausted.

It's highly likely to be a Failure to Provide Drover Information, which can carry a fine over £600, costs and victim surcharge, so could be best part of £1000.

They will and do take from wages if a person doesn't pay, and that is often how someone finds out about proceedings.

It sounds like he is going to make a Statutory Declaration which can be done if you were unaware of a conviction and sentence prior to the case ending, it sets aside the original proceedings and allows the case to be heard again.

Unfortunately, so many people don't realise that when you move you must change your V5c AND driving licence, this is where if falls down when something occurs down the line like a speeding and what would be a speed awareness/smaller fine etc becomes a bigger issue.

Not necessarily. The maximum fine for speeding on a non motorway road is now £1000 for motorways it's £2500

Yeah I also didn’t know I needed to change address with DVLA twice, once for license (which I did straight away) and secondly for the vehicle registration. I assumed there was a central DVLA record for all things, like there bloody well should be. I only found out about the second one when they wrote to me for the car tax reminder and the post was forwarded from old address.

@khaa2091

You didn't fight it?

Yeah, no I don't think they can take from wages op

I'm processing one of these through work at the moment.
The original fine was a small one, £35/ £60, I think driving over a bridge in an area you had to pay a toll.
He contested it, but his mail goes to a different address, and didn't collect the mail after that first time, or maybe just ignored the letter.
It's about half a year later I think, and I'm having to deduct 17% of his wages above a certain amount (I think, off the top of my head) to pay off his £1100 bill.

He will have known about it if payroll at work have his correct contact details, as the enforcement letter states you have to let the employee know the amount of the deduction being taken every month.

Appeal rejected, spoke to a solicitor who advised it was going to be expensive and cut my losses.

Yes this more likely what happened. Failing to provide driver details is 6 points and if he didn't plead guilty then the fine could easily be £1000. Unlikely he would be fined £1000 for not updating his licence. Still if he didn't confirm who the driver was witin 6 months he won't have been done for speeding as the police only have 6 months to bring a prosecution and if they don't know who the driver was they have to drop it

Debt can be taken directly from your wages - it can be arranged by the court even if you don’t attend. It sounds like he’s been sticking his head in the sand but you’ve not got the full story here OP.

His pants are on 🔥 , @Ontherocksthisyear

he obviously didn't hear the one about "when you get in a hole, stop digging". And him getting arsey with you is not acceptable.

time for a rethink.

Do you share finances? If you keep your finances separate and this won't effect you or your DC then he has a point.
If it will be coming out of your shared budget then he is being a dick.

Exactly this @Ontherocksthisyear

The fine for not updating your address on your driving license is max £1,000. Max speeding fine is £100. He's been caught speeding and now being charged for that too.

That sounds like quite excessive speeding for it to be that high and him in online court…

Finally, a reasonable non knee jerk post!

Oh ignore my other post. I get it now.

Of course they can. It's one of the (most reliable) ways of enforcing a court judgment against an individual

I think you might be being a bit unreasonable, OP.

He could have been more upfront about it, but he's hasn't lied to you about it and you didn't show any interest when he mentioned the fine. Your assumption of £50 was impossibly low but that's not really his fault, the £1K is a lot more than the minimum, but he is trying to overturn it and he had no idea you'd made such a low assumption. It sounds like he made a couple of common and relatively minor mistakes but they've happened to combine to have a disproportionate impact. He's probably stressed and unhappy about it too.

If he has form for being very disorganized and/or for driving infractions that result in problems for you, then you have more of a point, though arguing with him about it is unlikely to improve things. But otherwise I think you should be being supportive, not attacking him for something that's already happened.

Nasty man, you’re sailing your own boat there OP.
id be getting a credit check on him and find out if he’s got any ccjs or other legal/financial skeletons you need to know about

It is upto £1000 fine and 6 penalty points.
The magistrate has free rein once it's gone to that level to impose anything upto these amounts.