Speeding fine query

arulras

Hi all,

I'm new to MSE so please excuse me if this is the wrong place to ask this question.

Earlier in the year I was caught by a speed camera doing 40 on a 30-limit road. The usual letter came through offering a fixed penalty of £100 and a 3-point endorsement on my licence, which I accepted. Paid the £100 fine, received email confirmation and surrendered my licence to the DVLA for the endorsement.

Having heard nothing further, and assuming the matter was resolved, in October I received a letter, essentially a court summons, saying the matter was to be heard in front of a judge on 15th Nov. I was able to submit a plea online, which I did, explaining that the fixed penalty payment had been made well in time and gave the reference number etc that I'd been provided.

I have since realised that for some unknown reason, the original £100 fixed penalty payment had been credited back to my account a few weeks after it had been made in July. Just a £100 credit into the account from HM Courts & Tribunals - no letter or anything - it went into our joint account so I hadn't even noticed it to be honest.

Today I've received a letter from the court instructing me to pay £399 - a fine of £284, £30 "victim sur" (there was no victim?) and £85 costs.

My question is do I have grounds to contest this, seeing as I made the payment in good faith back in July for the original fixed penalty amount.

Thanks

The_Slithy_Tove

arulras wrote: »

I'm new to MSE so please excuse me if this is the wrong place to ask this question.

It is the wrong place, really. Head over to pepipoo.com, and post your query on the Speeding Tickets forum there. Pepipoo has much more expertise in this area than we do here.

Rover_Driver

arulras wrote: »

Hi all,
Paid the £100 fine, received email confirmation and surrendered my licence to the DVLA for the endorsement.

Your driving licence should have been sent to the fixed penalty office, not the DVLA. As they did not receive it, the fixed penalty was cancelled, £100 refunded and why the matter was dealt with at court.

yllop1101

A very similar thing happened to a friend, except the letters were going to her old address (despite updating the dvla with her new address). The first she heard about it the bailiffs came knocking and she had to pay £800, or have her car taken away. She paid the money, having been told she can get it back from dvla, and then dvla just shrugged off responsibility. She didn't pursue it, whereas I would have. I don't know the legalities of it but these things really make me angry and think they should be contested and fought in court, not just succumbed to!

Rover_Driver

yllop1101 wrote: »

A very similar thing happened to a friend, except the letters were going to her old address (despite updating the dvla with her new address). The first she heard about it the bailiffs came knocking and she had to pay £800, or have her car taken away. She paid the money, having been told she can get it back from dvla, and then dvla just shrugged off responsibility. She didn't pursue it, whereas I would have.

A completely different matter. The OP was offered a fixed penalty for speeding instead of a court case.
There are conditions attached to accepting the fixed penalty, one is that the driving licence is submitted to the fixed penalty office, which the OP failed to do. So the offer was withdrawn and the matter was dealt with at court.