Stopped by police, Problems with producer HO/RT10

Poppy9

You have no choice but to engage a solicitor to contest this for you.

With regard to the insurance you have to have physical evidence of cover for the day you were stopped. The insurance company that provided you with temporary cover for this period will send you something to this effect if you tell them it needs to be seen by the police.

I was stopped many years ago and given a HORT. I couldn't produce my driving licence within 7 days as it was in the DVLA having my address changed. The DVLA said it would be at least 3 weeks before I had it back. It is a legal requirement to have your correct address on your drivers licence. I went to the Police station with my insurance and MOT and my drivers licence number and explained where the actual licence was. The only response from the police officer was to read me my rights to advise me that I was being prosecuted for failing to produce my licence. I was terrrified as I thought this meant they would lock me up:o . My father wrote to chief inspector saying how ridiculous it was as I was complying with one legal requirement which caused me to be in breach of another. A couple of weeks later PO turned up at my door to request to see my insurance again. The POL who had been busy reading me my rights had forgot to note my insurance details. By this time I had my licence back so I offered it to this PO and he noted the details down and then a while later I had a letter saying they would not prosecute this time due to circumstances but if it happened again they would!

CarUser_2

What can you get for failing to produce? Is there a chance i can do something about the time requirments. i was not told what time to hand in the detials and was told only the date. Its a mistake alot of people must make thinking they have all day to hand in the documents.

Conor_3

CarUser wrote: »

On 26th December at around 10am I was stopped by police on my way to work. After looking at the car police decided to give me 3points on the spot for defects to the car. The defects where regarding the tyres and the breaks. From what I saw the officers only examined the car with a torch. My argument hear is that the police officer can not give me points by just looking at the car. To examine breaks the wheel would need to be removed, believe because my dad is mechanic who has working for over 30 years (Two more mechanics examined them and they said there working). Whereas for the tyres, the police did not have any kind of measuring equipment to check the actual tread on the tyres. The car also passed its M.O.T only 2 months. What got me angry was when the officer said to me “I wish I could give you more points”, can they even say stuff like this the public. As I use temporary cover insurance, I did not have a cover note with me. I was given a Producers form. A week later I went to the police station to produce my insurance documents, the officer behind the desk simply goes to me she wont accept it as it was past the time the ticket was given. She then said
I will be summoned to court for driving without insurance.

What are my rights?
What do I do and what can I do?
Can I stop getting the points for the defects?
What happens when I get to court?

If it helps you, I have been given speed points in the past but they were cleared after 4 years. I currently have 3 points for red light offence.

Thanks

YOUR FATHER IS COMPLETELY WRONG. The annual MOT test is a visual inspection only with no dismantling of parts yet it tests the brakes, including a visual inspection of the condition of the discs.

The Police can tell from the tread wear indicators built into every single tyre whether it is legal or not. They can tell from the scoring on the brake discs whether they're servicable or not. Just because they stop you doesn't mean they're not defective. The fact it passed it's MOT 2 months ago is irrelevent - the MOT is only an indication of the roadworthiness of the vehicle at the time of the test - not even as long as the journey back from the test station. At one point this last year, I was doing over 550 miles a week in my car so in 2 months could rack up over 4000 miles which is more than enough to turn legal tyres into extremely dangerous bald ones.

Unless you can produce proof of insurance for the time and date the HORT was issued, you will be found guilty of driving without insurance. Simply going in a week later with a certificate that was issued after the HORT was given is not good enough. I've got a funny feeling you weren't insured were you?

Take the points.

CarUser_2

Conor wrote: »

They can tell from the scoring on the brake discs whether they're servicable or not.

Simply going in a week later with a certificate that was issued after the HORT was given is not good enough. I've got a funny feeling you weren't insured were you?

The brake disks are fine, i had the seen as soon as this happen. I had it checked by my dad and also Kwick Fit (My local Kwick Fit always tries to sell the customer something they dont even need) and even they they said the brakes are fine BUT YOUR FRONT LEFT SIDE TYRE IS BOLD.

And Why you think i have no insurance? I use temp cover as i only pay when i drive the car. No point paying annual cost if im going to be borrowing different cars every month.

piggeh

Did Kwik Fit give you a report to show this? If so then I think this will help prove that the brakes are fine. If not then I would get an engineers report detailing the condition of the brakes to show that they're roadworthy. If you're willing to take 3 points for the tyre then I would try and plead with them that you're a safe driver and apologise for handing in your cover note late even if it was only a few hours.

Not sure on all your rights - I would recommend getting a solicitor or seeing what free legal advice is available to you. And remember to keep track of all costs in case you are able to claim these back.

Inactive

CarUser wrote: »

What can you get for failing to produce? Is there a chance i can do something about the time requirments. i was not told what time to hand in the detials and was told only the date. Its a mistake alot of people must make thinking they have all day to hand in the documents.

You didn't have " all day " you had 7 days.;)

CarUser_2

As im young and sometimes drive around in some Flash cars (not mine, but had insurance whenever i drove them) i get get pulled over a few times. Everytime i have been giving RT10 i have handed them in on the 7th day and often after the time of receiving it, this was a police station in Leicester. The police station where i have been told to go this time is in London.

[Deleted User]

You have 7 days to produce from midnight on the day the HORT/1 is issued, therefore the time of issue is not relevant as the 7 days only starts from midnight on that day.

If you fail to produce within 7 days you will be summonsed to court. If at court your documents are all in order then usually no further action is taken as having to waste a day in court in usually considered punishment enough, although your actual mileage may vary.

A police officer can give you points by looking at the car - after all its done all the time to people driving whilst talking into their handheld mobile phones!
They did not give you 3 points on the spot - they offered you a fixed penalty notice of a fine and points as an option to avoid going to court.

If you disagree with the notice then there is the option to go to court on the bottom or rear of the notice.

The notice will not be for tyres and brakes but one or the other as they are two seperate offences (and it will say on the notice which offence it has been issued for) and multiple fixed penalty notices cannot be issued for different offences at the same time you would have been reported for both offences and not be given a fixed penalty if you were being dealt with for both.

All the details of the tyres should have been recorded but unless its visibily bald or has cord or ply exposed a tyre depth guage would ideally be used.

If you have no insurance you may be offered a 6 point £200 fine fixed penalty instead of going to court.

This with the 3 points from the other fixed penalty will take you to 9 points - If you have passed your test within the last 2 years and accumlate 6 or points the DVLA will revoke your license and you will return to learner status and have to retake your test.

anewman

CarUser wrote: »

As im young and sometimes drive around in some Flash cars (not mine, but had insurance whenever i drove them) i get get pulled over a few times.

Why do I get the "oh yeah really?!" feeling about that?!

As you'll have learnt in the Theory test, when you drive a car it's your responsibility to check the safety of the car you use, this is why one of the bank of questions is what the legal minimum tread depth is. You got caught out unfortunately with a bald tyre.

Reluctant_spender

HAve a look here in relation to production of documents - this is from the CPS SIte - http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/section9/chapter_a_annex_a.html