AIBU to wonder whether I should report an accidental offence?

[AccidentalCriminal]

So I recently found out that I unknowingly and unwittingly broke the law last year.

No victim involved and I honestly and truly didn't know I'd done it.

Would you report yourself or just accept you got away with it?

A criminal conviction would destroy my career. But I also feel terrible that I've done something illegal.

WWYD?

How about you read the thread and see that I have quite clearly stated that my license and details are all correct now?

I was only guessing the answer to the PPs question.

It’s not the DVLA’s job to chase up unpaid fines. They just add the points to the licences.

I can see you are getting a lot of support here OP and that’s lovely. As someone with ADHD I do empathise greatly with the disorganisation that comes with it. But you were driving without a licence. When I passed my test many years ago my instructor said “congratulations you now have a licence to kill” - being banned for totting up demonstrates that you are a careless driver and don’t adhere to road rules. You are an accident waiting to happen and how big that accident is, is not in anyone else’s hands but yours. Yes you may have had speeding offences or some other “benign” misdemeanours but when compounded it shows you need to pay more attention.

The fact you didn’t attend court as the summons was sent to a previous address again shows your carelessness.

You are in charge of a vehicle capable of killing people. Everyone here having a laugh and a joke about donating money to charity to remove your guilt - joke.

Do yourself a huge favour and forget about it. 🌸

No extra points are added for not responding to the NIP. My replies are based on how the Met operates. Maybe it’s different elsewhere? Wouldn’t know

I used to work in the camera section and this is blowing my mind tbh. Things have maybe changed? Anyway OP forget it. No one rings 999 and reports themself.

Why do you keep responding saying the same thing instead of just googling it if you don’t actually know?

From the met police website:

If you ignore the letter/notice

If you do not respond to the letter/notice within 28 days your case will be referred to court because you failed to provide the information you were asked for.

It’s an offence to fail to provide driver details. A conviction will mean six penalty points will be added to your licence and you could be fined.

Apart from following up the fine and getting that paid, I don’t think there’s really much you can do, if your license has been restored, all your information is updated and insurance provider is aware. I very much doubt anyone’s ever gone to the police to hand themselves in for something like this so long after the fact.

Sorry; I can see what I wrote was confusing, but I wasn't concerned about the fines or collection of them. I was just slightly surprised that her sending for a renewal when it ought to have been a reinstatement, and from a new address, didn't make them wonder what had happened.

I did the exact same thing . Also diagnosed with ADHD in 2004 where the sole benefit it’s to explain to myself why I am so chaotic .. luckily I was travelling at the time so serendipitous ! Although I did hire a car in South America but I’m not going to report myself in Peru !! In the words of the song OP.. let it go.

Anyhow: about the DVLA and efficiency. Because I was interested to see what happened, I went to the website given upthread for finding out driving licence details, and duly gave it my driving licence number, my national insurance number and my postcode.

It said the details I had given it were incorrect.

I double-checked them against documents (the licence, and my pension details), then retyped them very slowly and carefully. I was told they were incorrect.

I got another person to check them and type them in. Still incorrect.

Shakes your confidence in their system, that sort of thing does.

That's a worry!!

Whilst almost certainly on the more overcautious side of things, I’d be tempted to give the DVLA a buzz at some point if they aren’t showing online just to make sure there’s not a fuck up on their side somewhere that might cause you issues later down the line if you were to be pulled over.

ADHD here too - you know you did wrong, as you said no harm, I know we have a strong sense of justice but I’ll put it this way.

if your friend came up to you and told you they’d suddenly realised they had been working in childcare without realising their DBS had run out - they have no convictions on the dbs, it’s just a formality, nobody got hurt yet the childcare service didn’t request a renewal either, they know last time they checked she was covered. Would you advise her to tell ofsted? or just renew when it comes through? And maybe let her boss know? We all make mistakes, they’d honestly probably laugh you out - the driving ban was an accumulation of issues which is frequent in adhd - as long as you declare your adhd and meds then the dvla doesn’t care.

this is an internal feeling that you didn’t pay the price for your mistakes - there’s plenty of dodgy people driving daily and recklessly without insurance or task and they dgaf about it. You were probably driving more safely overall if you were worried about your license.

it would not benefit anyone to ‘turn yourself in’ for a past event without harm.

let it go.

They can if they originally served it in time. I know this because I'm a magistrate and recently spent a riveting day dealing with loads of backdated unpaid speeding fines and totting from 2025!

You can't serve a NIP 6 months past the offence, but you can enforce it theoretically for as long as it takes to enforce. In real terms, probably three years until the points drop off, but I don't actually know as I've never seen it happen.

The unpaid ones and the ones that went to wrong addresses just keep bouncing around the courts' SJP system until a driver pings back up on the radar.

OP will still owe a fine for the speeding offence but now that the ban is over, the points will fall away.

I'd chalk this one up to no harm, no foul OP and expect a fine through the post some time in your future.

However, you are bloody lucky you didn't get caught or have an accident because your insurance would have been invalid.

You made a mistake, no one has suffered for this mistake. Put it down it experience, make a donation to a road safety charity and give yourself a break.

Driving whilst banned?! This is serious and could definitely have had victims. Firstly…. You have been deemed unfit to drive!! Secondly if you’d had an accident your car insurance would have been invalid so huge hassle for the other party.

When did the ban expire?

I don’t see how you even got car insurance. I had to input my DL number when applying for car Insurance

I reported this glitch (that my correct details are flagged as incorrect on their system) to the "are you happy with us?" page on their website, so with a bit of luck they may have a look to establish whether it's a universal glitch of some sort, or a just-me problem.

Her old insurers never checked and she's been honest with her current ones.

I don’t believe that.

But anyway, it’s done now but I can’t believe how many are just 🤷‍♀️ no biggie

Why don't you believe it?

Lots of insurers never do license checks until there's a claim or unless they have reason to believe you're lying.

The ban expired in December 2025. I've had new insurance since then- I don't think an expired driving ban means you cant get insurance in future. My BIL had a ban for doing 120 in the M25 years ago and he has insurance and works as a driver.

I am fully aware that it was serious. Needless to say, if I'd known I was banned, I wouldn't have been driving!!

She has had two speeding fines (presumably minor if they carried only three points rather than four, six or a 56-day ban), and a "failure to respond" penalty.

The latter is completely irrelevant to her ability to drive safely or fitness to drive; it has nothing to do with her actual driving at all.

If speeding twice meant you were unfit to drive, why is it only three points per speeding offence, not six or twelve?

I did read the thread but given the reason for your OP was recommending you double check rather than guess. A quick Google search suggests that all points are indeed removed after a totting up ban is served

Albeit a couple of decades ago I was hit by an uninsured driver and left with a serious wrist injury and thousands out of pocket..its somewhat tainted my view of drivers who aren't legally on the road.

In answer to your OP though there is absolutrlrly no point in reporting yourself. What's done is done and it was clearly unintentional.

I think OP said the DVLA returned the form to her, because they caught the renewal-instead-of-reinstatement.

If it was the D1 form it is used for all manner of things including an address change so I don't think a different address would flag anything up, they'd just think you were trying to change your address.

The whole form is confusing, there are some things that can be done online and for these the form shows a graphic of a mouse (why would you bother getting the D1 pack if it's possible to do what you need to online unless you can't use the internet in which case why do you care that it can be done online?) but some things can only be done using the form.

They really need to redesign it - since it's multi purpose there are different fees for different things and it's actually quite a task to work out what you owe them and which postcode to send it to. And then it's postal order time! And then you have to write some number (probably the serial number of the form, I have forgotten now) on the postal order in case whoever opens the post at DVLA flings it round the room and separates the form from the postal order. And then you can post it and if you're really lucky and haven't done anything wrong your licence comes back in a couple of weeks.