speeding..............lost licence!

lexi

hello,
My husbands friends at work is having a bit of a crisis, so wondered if anyone could offer advice. She got caught speeding & with it came a £ 60 fine. Unfortunately she knew she had lost her licence ( house move i think) & stupidly never got another one. The policeman said she couldnt pay the fine till she produced her licence, and she had x amount of days to comply. So she got a new licence. here comes another bit of stupidity or naivety. Apparently she didnt inform the police that she had got the licence( think she thought they would have been automatically notified), so the time ran out. Nopw she has just recieved a ltr notifying her that she must go to court over the unpaid fine. She can tell them that she doesnt want to go to court, but then she will have to pay costs, which i think were about £ 45, not inc the fine. According to my husband, she is obviously concerned about this ltr but she doesnt know if her fine will be increased, as she didnt pay it ( call it interest i guess). We dont know, but i said i would put it on the forums as someone might. I understand money is tight, so she could do with some good news, out of a unfortunate situation.

DarkHorse

She will have to go to court and defend the case or payup. The rules are clear, and she was informed of the time limit when she was given the paperwork to produce her licence.

plane_boy2000

In effect she has waived her right to a fixed penalty. The fixed penalty system is there to offer you a cheaper, quicker way to move on and free the courts up. In this case its likely that the fine will be more than £60, but the court will have to decide on this. Do you know how much she was speeding by and in what limit etc?

lexi

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

In effect she has waived her right to a fixed penalty. The fixed penalty system is there to offer you a cheaper, quicker way to move on and free the courts up. In this case its likely that the fine will be more than £60, but the court will have to decide on this. Do you know how much she was speeding by and in what limit etc?

Thats what my husband thinks.............that she will probably have to pay more. Sorry i dont know the answer about the last bit. I can ask my husband when he gets home if he knows. Is there any diffference then?

mattymoo

As well as an increased fine she also risks increased points. The range open to a magistrate is 3-6 points and it really can be pot luck as to what you get.

If the option is still open to pay the fixed penalty and costs of £45 she should go for it. Consider the costs a penalty for being disorganised

If she goes to court then she will need to fork out £200 for a solicitor unless she feels she can do it herself - and most people do not have the bottle for that.