The Great Speed Awareness Course Scam

AndyMc..... wrote: »

Don't break the law and you won't get scammed.

Exactly. The easiest scam or ripoff to avoid.

So, OP, did you learn anything from the course?

Stoke wrote: »

I've done a course before. Was caught speeding after having a row with my missus in the car and getting stressed.

Was I angry? Yes.
Was I f'ing and blinding at the van? Yes.
Was it their fault I was speeding? No.

At the end of the day, do I still speed? Yes. It's a risk I take and I know I take. You live with the consequences at the end of the day. If you get caught, your fault. The courses do help some people. I personally found mine to be useful in as far as it taught some very good driving tips. I just feel the speed limits in this country need reassessing as they are out of date..... some need upping and some need reducing in fact.

What about the risk to others,i am sure the children or ol people crossing the road will forgive you:eek:

These cameras and people ARE NOT impartial,!!!8230;

.

And then:

...they simply record speed and ruthlessly generate Notices Of Intended Prosecution to those they catch.

If they were not impartial they would prosecute some people whom they catch and not others, based on their partiality. According to you all drivers that they catch are sent NIPs so the system must be impartial.

The guideline threshold for action in a 30 mph limit is 35. The experts at pepipoo.com advise on thousands of speeding cases every year, and (despite lots of anecdotes) they have yet to see hard evidence of any action below that speed. Do you have any such evidence?

Indeed. I have seen one or two mentions on here, and elsewhere, of drivers alleging they have had action taken for driving 1mph over the limit. I have had quite a lot of dealings with people charged with speeding and I have yet to see a properly supported example of a driver having action taken against him for driving at 1mph over the limitt. In fact I dontt think I can recall any examples of a driver having action taken against him for driving below below the ACPO guidelines. This is the current CPS guidance for prosecuting Road Traffic offences and in particular the guidance on enforcement:

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/road-traffic-offences-guidance-fixed-penalty-notices

In particular:

These are guidelines only and a police officer has discretion to act outside of them providing he acts fairly, consistently and proportionately.

Note that it a police officer using his discretion to initiate action outside the guidelines (by taking action at a lower speed than suggested) must act consistently. Any office taking a one-off decision to take action at 31mph could face an enquiry for his inconsistency and any making it a regular habit would face the same enquiry for acting contrary to the guidelines.

So, back to your rant, it is quite easy to avoid falling victim to this MULTI MILLION POUND SCAM;. All you need to do is drive without exceeding the speed limits. In fact, I would be fairly sure that you would not become a victim if you kept below (Limit + 10% + 2mph). If you cannot avoid that, you still have no need to be scammed. You have three perfectly acceptable alternatives. You can:

- Take a Fixed Penalty of £100 and receive three points

- Or you can take the matter to court where pleading guilty (the least sensible alternative of all if you have no viable defence) will see you face an income related fine of up to 66% of your weekly net income, a 10% surcharge, £85 costs and either a ban or up to six points.

- Or go the whole hog and defend the matter on the basis that you face being scammed where the cost of failure for most people would be upwards of a Grand.

Why on Earth should anyone in their right mind fall for a scam which would cost them around ninety quid and half a day off work when they can readily avoid it by shelling out a thousand pounds or more? I'm quite with you. I cannot imagine why so many people fall for it and I think we must be eternally grateful to you for pointing out this MULTI MILLION POUND SCAM.

:rotfl:

Lets hope UK Carparks dont come up with their own version of the speed awareness course "how to park properly awareness course" - no doubt another "scam" for not being able to park within lines or come back to their car 10 minutes late and faced with a parking ticket.