Speeding Fine - Paid, Refunded, Court Summons

TooManyPoints

38 in a 30 would normally qualify for a Conditional Offer of a Fixed Penalty (£100 and 3 points). The condition is that you pay the £100 and send in your licence. Since you failed to do so the offer lapsed.

If the court sentences you in accordance with their guidelines, assuming you plead guilty, you will pay a fine of a third of a week's net income, a surcharge of 10% of the fine (Minimum £30), costs of £85 and you will receive three points.

Magistrates have guidance which says this:

Where a penalty notice could not be offered or taken up for reasons unconnected with the offence itself, such as administrative difficulties outside the control of the offender, the starting point should be a fine equivalent to the amount of the penalty and no order of costs should be imposed. The offender should not be disadvantaged by the unavailability of the penalty notice in these circumstances.

Of course the difficulties were under your control because you caused them by failing to send in your licence. But you could ask them to indulge you. Don't ask, don't get and they can only say "no".

By the way, do you have a summons, a postal requisition or a Single justice Procedure Notice (SJPN)? If the last you cannot attend the hearing. If you want to attend court you must reject the SJPN and ask for a court hearing.

oldnconfused

I'm just about to go through this process. Got nicked. Paid the £100 as soon as i got the notice. Obviously didnt read the instructions properly, and obviously didnt send the license back. (is stupidity a mitigating factor ?)


So i have had the refund email. Thought it was a scam. did some googling..rang the fixed penalty office. They told that once the refund is made its passed to the issuing Police Force and court proceedings are started.


So i'm now waiting for a summons, for which i will plead guilty and try to offer some mitigation...

TooManyPoints

In your response to (what will almost certainly be) a "Single Justice Procedure Notice" try using my guidance mentioned above. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not, sometimes the court will split the difference by fining you £100 but ordering that you pay £85 costs. If it's not too much of an inconvenience you can reject the SJPN and opt for a personal appearance to make your request. Don't ask wont get.

Bungle2278

Hi,

This is the same subject I received a penalty notice which I returned and then paid the fee in full online (have receipts and bank statement etc) I called them up and explained my driving licence was with Barclays as I had to send it via post to confirm my ID for a mortgage, I was told that they could endorse the licence without having it in their possession anyway and not to worry. They did however tell me that they couldn’t find the payment on their system, confused they asked me to call a separate number to chase the payment. I called it up about 10 times but was engaged each time. As it was xmas I didn’t keep trying, I’ve now received single justice procedure notice saying I never paid.

Any advice? As mentioned I have receipts and bank statement confirming I made payment on time.

The_Fatbaket

I have the same problem. I even rang the magistrate's court and they told me to ring the fines and ticket office. But which is open 10-12 mon to fri. So you only have 2 hours to get through. If you do send your paper license back it will be destroyed as no longer valid. But don't ignore the court summons. Fill it all in and send off.

Car_54

The_Fatbaket wrote: »

I have the same problem. I even rang the magistrate's court and they told me to ring the fines and ticket office. But which is open 10-12 mon to fri. So you only have 2 hours to get through. If you do send your paper license back it will be destroyed as no longer valid. But don't ignore the court summons. Fill it all in and send off.

That advice will not help the poster, who asked the question almost a year ago.

TooManyPoints

If you do send your paper license back it will be destroyed as no longer valid.

Not correct. The ticket office to which you send your paper licence has no authority to destroy it. It remains valid until it expires. Only if the driver has to apply for a new licence (because of a change of name, address or if he is disqualified for 56 days or more) must he apply for a new one and a photo-card version will be issued.

AdrianC

TooManyPoints wrote: »

Not correct. The ticket office to which you send your paper licence has no authority to destroy it.

If we're talking about a pre-photocard paper licence, you're right.
If, otoh, we're talking about the now-redundant paper "counterpart" to a photocard, then there's zero point in them returning it - so, yes, I would expect it to be destroyed, as the government have been advising you to do for the nearly five years since it ceased to have any value.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/driving-licence-changes

gov.uk wrote:

What to do with your paper counterpart
The paper counterpart to a driving licence has had no legal status since 8 June 2015. You should destroy yours if you have one, but keep your photocard driving licence.

Car_54

TooManyPoints wrote: »

Not correct. The ticket office to which you send your paper licence has no authority to destroy it. It remains valid until it expires. Only if the driver has to apply for a new licence (because of a change of name, address or if he is disqualified for 56 days or more) must he apply for a new one and a photo-card version will be issued.

See post #7. There is ongoing confusion between the pre-1998 paper licence and the counterpart licence which used to accompany the photocard.

TooManyPoints

If we're talking about a pre-photocard paper licence, you're right.

Yes I am. There's no point in anybody keeping the paper counterpart to a photocard licence, let alone submitting it when accepting a fixed penalty.