Money Moral Dilemma: Should I pay my friend's speeding fine?

commandomum · 30 April 2014 at 4:00PM

Hi Darryl

A lot of people that have replied to this post have seemed to miss the point that depending on the speed that your friend was driving at then he would have been offered a speed awareness course. Although this is more than the cost of a speeding fine (or it was when I got caught speeding last year) he wouldn't end up with any points on his licence. If he has not been offered the speed awareness course then he was either driving well in excess of the speed limit at that time or he has already attended a speed awareness course in the last couple of years and no I would not offer to pay his fine. His speed was his choice and as another poster pointed out, if he wasn't paying attention and did not see the speed camera signs then he probably wouldn't have seen the child coming from between two cars either.

If you lose a friend over this then you are probably better off without this friend. Your choice. Good luck

I-Luv-Money

I also enjoyed the speed awareness course, I relearnt stuff that I had forgotton and the age range was from teenagers to sixty plus so no one is immune

Regards

Lynne

nhampson · 30 April 2014 at 4:17PM

Its the responsibility of the driver to drive sensibly regardless of the circumstances.

Lucky they didn't kill someone driving dangerously or you would be wondering how long you would serve in prison for them

I-LOV-MONEY · 30 April 2014 at 4:47PM

DigForVictory wrote: »

Treat them as £80 a session advanced driving instructors who can send you to the naughty step in front of a judge, listen & have a good time!

commandomum wrote: »

I-Luv-Money

I also enjoyed the speed awareness course, I relearnt stuff that I had forgotton and the age range was from teenagers to sixty plus so no one is immune

Regards

Lynne

£80 for SAC? I have forked out just over £90 ! However, the fine would have been £100.

I am in the latter half of the age range

JeremyCH · 30 April 2014 at 5:09PM

Sorry, no - his choice to speed not yours - speeding fines are an entirely voluntary fine as are the points. If you don't want them then don't speed - and I'm not playing holier than thou because I've been caught by cameras in the past.

Ask yourself this, would you pay his fine for any other crimnal offence; are you going to take his points as well? Remember what happended to Geoff hoon and his missus when they played that game.

scarlet_macaw · 30 April 2014 at 6:51PM

jgriggle wrote: »

As with pretty much all of these 'should I pay' dilemmas, you should offer to pay and he should refuse your offer.

If he takes you up on the offer he's not a good friend, and it'll have cost you the price of a speeding fine to find that out. Money well spent perhaps?

Exactly what happened to me. A friend very kindly gave me a lift to the airport to catch an early morning flight and got caught by a notorious local yellow money-box.

I immediately offered to pay his fine and he refused.

The outcome, however is that I have been reluctant to accept lifts to the airport since and now rely on minicabs (at £40 a pop) as I don't feel a friend should be out of pocket for doing me a favour

Tiptaker · 30 April 2014 at 8:11PM

Not unless you had your foot on the accelerator pedal.

diceydora · 30 April 2014 at 8:20PM

I wouldn`t like to have you lot as friends . true friends help each other , a friend once insisted he paid half of a parking fine we had .I thought that was a really kind thing to do and a few months later we returned the favour when he got a ticket, SO OFFER TO PAY HALF AND BE A GOOD MATE NOT A MISER !!!

jewel*queen · 30 April 2014 at 9:23PM

Ther's no way you should pay the fine. Yes, they were helping you by giving you a lift but it wasn't your fault they got caught in a speed camera. The driver needs to take full responsibility for their actions.

bluecanoe · 30 April 2014 at 9:27PM

Agree with you diceydora and slicsav, although the driver is totally at fault, good friends totally help each other out. The costs of running a car are huge and some people are fantastic at running friends around. If it was a one off event I'd offer something towards it (like the equivalent of the taxi fare), but if the friend had saved me a small fortune in fares over the years I would give at least half (especially if I still wanted lifts!). I had a "friend" in the same street as me and transported her and 3 kids all over the place. My son accidentally broke a £5 toy in her house. I offered to replace it and the offer was accepted. Guess what- the free lifts dried up instantly!

PS Have also done the speed awareness course and discovered a whole load of new things not covered in my test, which was erm some time ago now.

Augustus_the_Strong · 30 April 2014 at 9:57PM

That's nice of you, but I think he has to take the responsibility. But you might offer a contribution or split the cost, see what he says. I can see why you feel bad about it when your friend was doing you a favour.

Money Moral Dilemma: Should I pay my friend's speeding fine?

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