In 2005 I accidentally sped at 38mph past a speed camera at midnight. It was in a village on the A35 in Dorset where you enter the village on a downhill and round a bend. The fact that a village is coming up is not obvious, and if you're not familiar with the route, you round the bend, are faced with a 30 mph limit sign and a couple of tens of metres later, a speed camera, which I reckon is a pure money spinner for the police. Other villages seem to be able to give ample advance warning about a reduced speed limit coming up. Anyway I was pootling along at 40 on the A35, rounded the corner and was caught by the camera. Cue three points and a £60 fine. Fair enough.
A couple of years later, there was a review of the siting of camera, and it came to light that there was a mistake in the registration of the location of the camera. Not that the camera was in the wrong place, but that it was misdescribed at the county council. So thousands of people suddenly became eligible to reclaim their points and fines.
I've now been sent a letter by Dorset traffic cameras asking me if I want to reclaim my fine and points.
And I'm in a moral dilemma about it. On the one hand, I did speed past the camera. On the other hand, the camera seems to have sited deliberately to catch people who don't know the route- ie not local people. So, good people of MN, to reclaim or not to reclaim?