12pts in a week - driving ban

[Jarofgoodness]

I can't believe that this is happening.

I am normally such a careful driver. I hate speeding, always use the speed limiter on my car and have never had even 3pts on my licence in almost 30 years of driving.

Last month I worked away from home for a week, and on the way to my temporary workplace there was a road which I thought was a 30mph road but which was actually a 20. I got caught speeding (high 20s) every single day, and yesterday received four speeding fines in the post at once. £400 in fines but also 12pts which means a mandatory six month driving ban!

I simply cannot believe that this is happening. I know that it is my responsibility to know the speed limit, and that I shouldn't break it. But this punishment seems wildly excessive and unfair to me. I have 30 years of spotless driving, and have not suddenly become dangerous in a week. Surely someone can see the pattern here and note that it was multiple times making the same simple mistake in exactly the same place? I didn't even have time to reflect on one speeding ticket and change my driving behaviour because they all arrived at once, after I had left the area!

What can i do? I am not expecting sympathy as I know I am only receiving the punishment due to me. But I may well lose my job. The form says that I can plead 'exceptional hardship' in court but that losing employment doesn't count.

I see boy racers all the time and yet I am getting banned! It just seems such an unfairness.

Are you able to appeal them? They may offer you a course for the first one which brings you back to 9? I have no idea if that’s feasible or not. Have you spoken to anyone about if there are any options?

Agreed. It's as if the point of the speed awareness course is to make you aware of the limit on that one road.

No dear, the volume of speed cameras has increased exponentially.

I have had three accidents since learning to drive. 1986, 1996 and 2011. My excess was repaid on each occasion because no time was the accident my fault.

Did you happen to be driving in Wales? As a PP said, the lamp post rule applies for 20 mph there as it does in for 30 mph in England. This might be why you missed signs.

Was it a busy road? Were going with the flow of traffic?

My sympathies OP - If this were me, I would get some legal advice and possibly go to court. If you have got a completely clean license apart from this one week where you accumulated the 12 points, all at the same place, I'd use that to try and get maybe a higher fine with no ban.... not sure if that's possible, but worth a chat to a solicitor. Good luck!

No it is the correct legal argument to make. Zov is correct.

Something very similar happened to me, although I made a u-turn where I shouldn’t have had, twice in one week. I received a ticket for the first incident and to my dismay, realised I had made the same manoeuvre the day before (so another ticket would be on its way).

I wrote to the council and asked them to cancel the second ticket and they did. I said I was very happy to pay for the first ticket but I didn’t realise I couldn’t make a u-turn where I did until I received the ticket.

it might be different for you as yours was in relation to speeding, but definitely worth a go!

You said you’ve had fines and points in the past five years. You can’t drive.

I think you will find I can and drive well but I'm going to stop responding to you now because clearly you know everything and have already accused a 65 year old of being too old.

The last thing you should do is go to court and say "well, nobody told me I was speeding so how was I supposed to know?!" 😂

That's not what I said.

Actually I withdraw my post. Apparently the offences have to have been incurred on the same day to be treated as one. I just had a quick look.

Are you racist, sexist, and homophobic as well as ageist?

You need legal advice OP, find a solicitor that specialises in traffic offences. If you really think your job would be on the line for losing your licence for 6 months, it’ll be worth it.

So going 50% above a speed limit is fine? So if it’s national speed limit it’s ok to do over 100mph?

and it’s not 1st offence - she was caught on 4 separate occasions

and speed awareness courses aren’t an entitlement

Agree with this!

Also Op, there should be a case for being able to do a speed awareness course for the first one, which means only 9 pts total. Fingers crossed for you.

Is it possible that the OP has missed the fact that she can apply to take a speed awareness course? It seems very unusual if that hasn't been offered and the OP hasn't taken a course before.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I know I'm right, but I have stopped bothering to say anything. People are determined they're right (when they're not,) and nothing I say is going to make people admit they are wrong. They can keep doubling down, but I'm still right. The OP should have been offered a speed awareness course after her first speeding offence, especially taking into account that it was a first offence and she was only doing 30mph.

@Daytimetellyqueen confirmed it too. At 13.45. (And so did @nicepotoftea just after!)

I genuinel CBA to argue with the 'yeah but yeah buts/ and the whatabouttery, so I'm done on the thread. Good luck @Jarofgoodness I hope you can sort it out. Get legal advice.

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A friend of mine had 12 points in similar situations and went to court - wasn’t as scary as she thought. She managed to overturn the potential ban and got a speed awareness course.

Speed awareness courses is only offered if the offence meets certain criteria. The OP might have been going too fast

I sympathise with your situation but you have repeatedly driven 10 miles over the speed limit in a 20 zone - it makes a huge difference braking at 20 to braking at 30. Imagine someone suddenly veering into the road and you are 10 miles faster in a slow speed zone. They’d stand no chance.

Was this in Wales? Roads with repeat lights are automatically 30 in the UK but 20 in Wales. A speed awareness course for doing 80 as opposed to 70 on the motorway taught me that. I can’t preach as whilst I have no points the speed awareness course was much needed for me.

If this helps at all: my friend was twice recorded in the same area about 8 miles faster than allowed. Think she drove at 38 instead of 30. She was offered a speed awareness course for theorist offence and had to accept the points for the other.

Do you have caring obligations or is someone relying on your driving? Do you live very remotely? If I were you I’d get a specialist lawyer that defends driving offences like yours and let them plead your case. Given your previous good record I think you may get spared the full severity of the ban 🤞

There's no "should" about it in law. Speed awareness courses are discretionary - nobody is entitled to be offered one no matter what speed they were doing.

And she may "only have been doing 30mph" but that's 50% over the limit of the road - it's (legally speaking) the same as going 90 in a 60, or 60 in a 40. Nobody would be offered a course for either of those - it would be straight to a fine and points.

The limit for a course in 20mph zone is 31 - OP could easily have been going over that if she thought it was a 30 zone.

Speed awareness courses are offered at the discretion of the police, but in a 20 mph zone many forces would have a police of offering them if the driver was driving up to 31mph.

They're also entirely discretionary and the police aren't obliged to offer one at all, even if you do meed the "criteria".

Surely you saw the flash of the camera though which would alert you to the fact your were driving too fast. I can’t believe it would be a mobile camera (no flash) on the same road everyday for a week.