Driving Offences Advice

[Shrimper2thecore]

I have received a letter through the post, so thought I would see if any of my extended-SZ-family have any advice on the matter, having had the same thing, or just having some knowledge on the subject.

So what did I do? I jumped a red light apparently. So I have this three page letter through telling me to respond in 28 days or else.

Does anyone know what I am looking at here? Is it your basic 3 points, £60 fine? Any way around it? etc?

Cheers S2TC

 

[Pubey]

I have received a letter through the post, so thought I would see if any of my extended-SZ-family have any advice on the matter, having had the same thing, or just having some knowledge on the subject.

So what did I do? I jumped a red light apparently. So I have this three page letter through telling me to respond in 28 days or else.

Does anyone know what I am looking at here? Is it your basic 3 points, £60 fine? Any way around it? etc?

Cheers S2TC

i got a very similar one about 6 months ago, i went through the junction as the lights were changing. it's standard 3 points £60 although the letter does make it sound like it could be worse. there are certain loopholes, like saying that you weren't sure who was driving at the time, but i think that has been closed now. there are some good websites about this kind of stuff but in the end i think you'll just have to bite the bullet and cough up

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

i got a very similar one about 6 months ago, i went through the junction as the lights were changing. it's standard 3 points £60 although the letter does make it sound like it could be worse. there are certain loopholes, like saying that you weren't sure who was driving at the time, but i think that has been closed now. there are some good websites about this kind of stuff but in the end i think you'll just have to bite the bullet and cough up

Cheers Pubey, am I right in thinking once you had a lisence for 2 years its 12 points before a ban?

 

[class]

Yes, 12 points mate. 1 life down, 3 to go. ;)

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

Yes, 12 points mate. 1 life down, 3 to go. ;)

Yes.......1 life :whistling:

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

Also an offence is wipped from your license after 3 years I believe

 

[Pubey]

Also an offence is wipped from your license after 3 years I believe

yeah that's true

 

[steveo]

The letter you received will be asking you to identify who was driving the vehicle. If you can show the vehicle is available to numerous people you can claim you dont know who was driving.

There was a case a few years ago when a Police car got caught on a speed camera and the police force in question didnt know who was driving so no points were awarded.

I refered to this case when one of our works vans got nicked and got away with it once. The second time I tried it they said if I couldnt name a driver the Company Secretary would get the points.

 

[Kent Shrimper]

Also an offence is wipped from your license after 3 years I believe

Well i always thought they counted for 3 but were wiped after 4. However according to the Government site, they count for 4 and stay for 4

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/EndorsementsAndDisqualifications/DG_4022550

Just done some more digging and under the 12 points and out, if you tott up 12 points in 3 years you get banned. However the points stay on your license for 4 years

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/EndorsementsAndDisqualifications/DG_069887

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

The letter you received will be asking you to identify who was driving the vehicle. If you can show the vehicle is available to numerous people you can claim you dont know who was driving.

There was a case a few years ago when a Police car got caught on a speed camera and the police force in question didnt know who was driving so no points were awarded.

I refered to this case when one of our works vans got nicked and got away with it once. The second time I tried it they said if I couldnt name a driver the Company Secretary would get the points.

I dont want to lie, I was driving. From the part in bold it sounds like that has changed, and they would just say that the car owner will get the points then

 

[Kent Shrimper]

I would take them on the chin, there used to be ways and means around them but its not worth the grief. I appealed 3 points once and ended up with 5 and £150 fine instead!!!

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

I would take them on the chin, there used to be ways and means around them but its not worth the grief. I appealed 3 points once and ended up with 5 and £150 fine instead!!!

Dont want that!! Bloody hell

 

[Pubey]

The letter you received will be asking you to identify who was driving the vehicle. If you can show the vehicle is available to numerous people you can claim you dont know who was driving.

There was a case a few years ago when a Police car got caught on a speed camera and the police force in question didnt know who was driving so no points were awarded.

I refered to this case when one of our works vans got nicked and got away with it once. The second time I tried it they said if I couldnt name a driver the Company Secretary would get the points.

yeah i think the loophole was closed by saying that if you can't prove who was driving it then the owner of the car is charged with the offense

 

[The Big Shrimp]

Jumping the lights often carries more than the standard 3 points & £60 fine. Its considered a lot more than speeding.

I had a similar letter sent to me a year or two back, even though I had stopped & a car in the outside lane jumped the lights! I queried it & got an unreserved apology, which is just as well, as I was told I could expect 5 points & big-ish fine!

 

[Hotman]

Was it likely to have been you? If so I'd siign it off and pay to be honest

 

[A Century United]

Your only feasible defence is if you were being tailgated, and you had an honest fear that if you had braked you would have been shunted.

 

[South Bank Hank]

"A friend of mine" [ahem] did get away with this a number of years ago, but it has to be said "he" got off on a technicality...

"My friend" went through a red light on his way from a Southend match at Roots Hall on Boxing Day. He couldn't believe he'd actually done it. Drove through the light (which was dark pink at worst), got flashed by the camera, and then promptly sat at the back end of the queue immediately opposite the junction. He'd made about 20 yards...

Then in the post over the next week, he received a nice picture of the back of his car going nowhere not very quickly. ****!

Thinking himself clever, he wrote back saying that he wasn't sure who was driving at the time as various people have access to the car.

The police responded in kind, informing him that he either took the points for going through the light, or took a similar number of points for not knowing who was driving which is also a specific offence.

To string things out a bit, he wrote back saying that he thought it probably was him driving, but he still couldn't be sure. So, he asked, should he plead guilty to going through the light, or should he plead guilty to not knowing for sure who was driving. He asked if they could they advise?

They didn't advise of course. They just hit him with a court summons, but that's where he got lucky. The police/magistrates provided a date in about 4 weeks and asked him to confirm whether he would be attending in person. He needed to confirm within the next 7 days.

Thinking to himself that there was no way they could disprove such a confirmation being lost in the post, he ignored it, but turned up on the day in question to argue that he'd wanted to plead guilty, but that the police hadn't been clear about which offence they were charging him with.

In short, because he hadn't confirmed attendance, he police didn't send a representative to prosecute. The magistrate told him he had no case to answer, and that he was free to go.

-----------------------

By the way, the person in question [ahem] wishes to point out that he had simply pleaded guilty to a previous driving misdemeanour and opted to face the consequences. He did so on mistaken belief that they would be lenient if he pleaded guilty, and his word against the police would be pointless.

They screwed him that day anyway so he was really seeking to redress the balance.






Moral of the story: think I'd just take the points mate!

 

[davewebbsbrain]

I have received a letter through the post, so thought I would see if any of my extended-SZ-family have any advice on the matter, having had the same thing, or just having some knowledge on the subject.

So what did I do? I jumped a red light apparently. So I have this three page letter through telling me to respond in 28 days or else.

Does anyone know what I am looking at here? Is it your basic 3 points, £60 fine? Any way around it? etc?

Cheers S2TC

Ask to see the calibration certificate from the Red Light Camera for the day you were caught!!

If not, they can't prove that the camera was accurate at the time!

 

[MrB]

Just done some more digging and under the 12 points and out, if you tott up 12 points in 3 years you get banned. However the points stay on your license for 4 years

I can confirm this, I had 9 'active' points for two years so had to be very careful which was pretty tough when you drove a car that did 0-60 in 4.8 seconds!

 

[Cricko]

I can confirm this, I had 9 'active' points for two years so had to be very careful which was pretty tough when you drove a car that did 0-60 in 4.8 seconds!

You should get yourself an Aston Martin B ..they are much slower..