Speeding fine

loobiloo

I was recently caught speeding in a 30 mph zone, I seem to remember I was doing 35mph.  I received notification of a fine of £100. I filled in an online statement admitting my excess speed and ability to pay the £100 fine.

I've now received notice of the total due at £531. This includes £315 fine, £126 victim surcharge (no victim was involved) and £90 costs.

I'm told this is due to "Court fines are always higher than if it was dealt with at Fixed Penalty stage". 

Nowhere on the original online form was this mentioned. I've complained to them. 

Any advice or suggestions most appreciated. Thanks

 Edit : the original offence was in October 2022. I received notification of the fine last month

CliveOfIndia

This doesn't sound right.  Getting caught doing 35 in a 30 is a fixed penalty of £100 and 3 points.  It's only if you choose to go to court to argue your case and you lose (or if you were going too fast for a FPN to be applicable), that you get hit with a higher fine, costs and victim surcharge.

Did you accept the FPN, or did you ignore it, or did you elect to be heard in court?

TooManyPoints

It seems your case has progressed to court.

If the offence was committed prior to 30th November 2022, it was a condition of the fixed penalty that you submitted your driving licence when accepting the offer. For offences committed after that date, it is a condition that you submit your driving licence details (note, this must be done even if you have already done so when naming yourself as the driver). What date was your offence and did you do whichever of those two was appropriate? 

(no victim was involved) 

There doesn't have to be. All fines imposed in court incur a 40% surcharge. It is known as a "Victim Surcharge" because the proceeds are used to help fund various organisations that assist victims, such as Victim Support.

loobiloo

Thank you.
The offence was last month. 
I wasn't asked to submit my driving licence. In fact I seem to remember the form specifically stated not to submit it at that point. 

loobiloo

CliveOfIndia said:

This doesn't sound right.  Getting caught doing 35 in a 30 is a fixed penalty of £100 and 3 points.  It's only if you choose to go to court to argue your case and you lose (or if you were going too fast for a FPN to be applicable), that you get hit with a higher fine, costs and victim surcharge.

Did you accept the FPN, or did you ignore it, or did you elect to be heard in court?

Thank you. I admitted the offence online very soon after receiving the documents. 

CliveOfIndia

loobiloo said:

CliveOfIndia said:

This doesn't sound right.  Getting caught doing 35 in a 30 is a fixed penalty of £100 and 3 points.  It's only if you choose to go to court to argue your case and you lose (or if you were going too fast for a FPN to be applicable), that you get hit with a higher fine, costs and victim surcharge.

Did you accept the FPN, or did you ignore it, or did you elect to be heard in court?

Thank you. I admitted the offence online very soon after receiving the documents. 

Were you issued with a FPN, and did you pay it?  It does sound like it went to court for whatever reason, which would absolutely explain the additional costs.

loobiloo

I received a number of documents which included details of my monthly expenditure. It went on forever. I then saw it was possible to respond online which I did. It didn't ask for my monthly expenditure but did ask if I could afford to pay the £100 fine, to which I said yes. 

turnitround

Did you not get offered a speed awareness course?

DE_612183

loobiloo said:

I received a number of documents which included details of my monthly expenditure. It went on forever. I then saw it was possible to respond online which I did. It didn't ask for my monthly expenditure but did ask if I could afford to pay the £100 fine, to which I said yes. 

But did you pay the fine?

Yes or No?

loobiloo

No, there was no suggestion to pay at that point. 

loobiloo

turnitround said:

Did you not get offered a speed awareness course?

Yes I did. There wasn't a local option and it would still have cost me a £90 fine. I realised that would add points to my licence.