Speeding Offence RR84061

Habib2342 · 3 September 2017 at 9:19PM

Hello,

Back in April 2017 , i was caught by the police doing 50 mph in a 30mph restricted road. Indefensible yes, but the court wants to charge me an extortionate £474 and 6 points on my licence for this violation which took them five months to issue the fine. . the fee consists of :

£85 -prosecutor costs - fair enough
Fined £354.00. -??????? what exactly is this ?
To pay a surcharge to fund victim services of £35.00 - I would understand if I had injured someone or something but it was a sliproad coming off the motorway where the signage was not clear- i.e it had not reduce speed signage but had the 50 and 30 mph circle signs. Plus it was not a residential road so ...why ?

I live in NW London but the fine had been issued by Bromley Magistrates court which is in SE London- someone explain the logic in that ?

I accept the 6 points on my license as obviously the plea I made online was not enough to encourage the judge to show mercy for this serious indiscretion and I am not against paying a fine but I think the amount they have issued me is a bit excessive. I would've though something in the region of 100-200 pounds would be fair, but 474 is just :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

What are people thoughts ? should I contest it or suck it up like a man and pay it off ? its a good thing I'm cycling now as over relying on the car has made me overweight, irritable, and half asleep, which leads to other things, etc...

have to setup a standing order nad pay if off over 6 months...lets see what the court says...

BeenThroughItAll · 3 September 2017 at 9:35PM

Crime = time. Stop whining and pay up for being 66% over the limit.

wgl2014 · 3 September 2017 at 9:40PM

Google the court guidelines for fines and sentencing. What you feel you might like to be fined is irrelevant.

Habib2342 · 3 September 2017 at 9:45PM

the people have spoken. I am getting no empathy here-rightly so it would seem...

TonyMMM · 3 September 2017 at 9:47PM

You could appeal against sentence, but for the excess over the limit that you were caught at the points and fine are well within the appropriate guidelines so your chance of success would be very slim indeed. There would also be additional costs connected with making the appeal.

The court/victim surcharge are standard for all convictions so would stand anyway.

If the signage was incorrect then you may have had a potential defence, but it sounds like you pleaded guilty.

sevenhills · 3 September 2017 at 9:47PM

Habib2342 wrote: »

a slip road coming off the motorway where the signage was not clear- i.e it had not reduce speed signage but had the 50 and 30 mph circle signs...

Speed limits cannot be variable, maybe at other times a 30mph limit would have been appropriate.

Higher fines = good.

I got fined for no insurance a few years back, just a case of getting stopped for little reason, I got 8 points; yet I often see others on TV getting let off much lighter.
A car chase, good to watch on TV, and then they get fined a few hundred ££s and 4/6 points.
It is off my license now, do the crime and you have to do the time, but we are not all treated the same

TadleyBaggie · 3 September 2017 at 9:48PM

Fine is income related, surcharge is charged for all convictions, there doesn't need to be an actual victim.

The case would have been at the court close to where the offence took place, where you live is irrelevant.

JustAnotherSaver · 3 September 2017 at 9:55PM

I haven't yet been fined as i've to send my paperwork off first but i was under the impression i would get 3 points & £100 fine which i was ok about. I did 42 in a 30.
Only later on did i find out about the change in law a few months ago & realise i'm in a band B where i will be charged 100% of my weekly wage.

This Pd me off. My initial reaction was that's too much but then as i stopped to think about it i realised this was the proper reaction. When i initially thought 3 points & £100 i thought i can stand that - therefore it wasn't hard hitting enough.

Facing 4-6 points & a weeks wage and i'm raging, which has made me be more cautious out on the road since. This is the sort of reaction punishments should bring so as much as i don't like it the punishment i'm facing has brought about the correct reaction whereas if it'd only been 3 points & £100 i would've probably still been a bit heavy footed.

If you make any punishment hard enough then people will think twice about doing the crime. This is how it should be.

EDIT: On a side note i'm not sure what a weekly wage is for me. I don't do a 9-5 office job. My wage varies from week to week and often not by a small amount either. Is it a week where i work a Saturday or not? A week where i do a ton of overtime (say 65 hours) or a week where i'm only doing 47.5 hours (the least we can do without sick days & early leave). A week where i've taken sick days? A week where i've had 1 or 2 early finishes? An average over a set timeframe, say 12 weeks which may be a lot more than the 12 weeks prior to that?

What is a week?

Aylesbury_Duck · 3 September 2017 at 10:08PM

Habib2342 wrote: »

Hello,

Back in April 2017 , i was caught by the police doing 50 mph in a 30mph restricted road. Indefensible yes, but the court wants to charge me an extortionate £474 and 6 points on my licence for this violation which took them five months to issue the fine. . the fee consists of :

£85 -prosecutor costs - fair enough
Fined £354.00. -??????? what exactly is this ?
To pay a surcharge to fund victim services of £35.00 - I would understand if I had injured someone or something but it was a sliproad coming off the motorway where the signage was not clear- i.e it had not reduce speed signage but had the 50 and 30 mph circle signs. Plus it was not a residential road so ...why ?

I live in NW London but the fine had been issued by Bromley Magistrates court which is in SE London- someone explain the logic in that ?

I accept the 6 points on my license as obviously the plea I made online was not enough to encourage the judge to show mercy for this serious indiscretion and I am not against paying a fine but I think the amount they have issued me is a bit excessive. I would've though something in the region of 100-200 pounds would be fair, but 474 is just :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

What are people thoughts ? should I contest it or suck it up like a man and pay it off ? its a good thing I'm cycling now as over relying on the car has made me overweight, irritable, and half asleep, which leads to other things, etc...

have to setup a standing order nad pay if off over 6 months...lets see what the court says...

Suck it up and pay it off. Sounds like they've judged the level of fine appropriately, going by your response. As you said yourself, if it was only points and £100, would it have made you a more careful driver in future?

Keep_pedalling · 3 September 2017 at 10:08PM

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

EDIT: On a side note i'm not sure what a weekly wage is for me. I don't do a 9-5 office job. My wage varies from week to week and often not by a small amount either. Is it a week where i work a Saturday or not? A week where i do a ton of overtime (say 65 hours) or a week where i'm only doing 47.5 hours (the least we can do without sick days & early leave). A week where i've taken sick days? A week where i've had 1 or 2 early finishes? An average over a set timeframe, say 12 weeks which may be a lot more than the 12 weeks prior to that?

What is a week?

A years income / 52 probably

Warwick_Hunt · 3 September 2017 at 10:10PM

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I haven't yet been fined as i've to send my paperwork off first but i was under the impression i would get 3 points & £100 fine which i was ok about. I did 42 in a 30.
Only later on did i find out about the change in law a few months ago & realise i'm in a band B where i will be charged 100% of my weekly wage.

This Pd me off. My initial reaction was that's too much but then as i stopped to think about it i realised this was the proper reaction. When i initially thought 3 points & £100 i thought i can stand that - therefore it wasn't hard hitting enough.

Facing 4-6 points & a weeks wage and i'm raging, which has made me be more cautious out on the road since. This is the sort of reaction punishments should bring so as much as i don't like it the punishment i'm facing has brought about the correct reaction whereas if it'd only been 3 points & £100 i would've probably still been a bit heavy footed.

If you make any punishment hard enough then people will think twice about doing the crime. This is how it should be.

EDIT: On a side note i'm not sure what a weekly wage is for me. I don't do a 9-5 office job. My wage varies from week to week and often not by a small amount either. Is it a week where i work a Saturday or not? A week where i do a ton of overtime (say 65 hours) or a week where i'm only doing 47.5 hours (the least we can do without sick days & early leave). A week where i've taken sick days? A week where i've had 1 or 2 early finishes? An average over a set timeframe, say 12 weeks which may be a lot more than the 12 weeks prior to that?

What is a week?

1/52 of your annual salary.

Speeding Offence RR84061

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