:eek:

Dirty laundry time:
I have been summonsed(sp?) to court for speeding >>>>>I KNOW I KNOW, you dont all have to start chastising me at once (37 in a 30 4th and final sp30)......here looking to find out what i can expect, should i get a solicitor, any idea on amount i could get fined , could i lose my licence ?
Feel free to pm me if you do wish to offer first hand knowledge but do not want to be ripped apart for driving above the speed limit as i guess i am about to be.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can give me an idea of what to expect.

NotoriousREV

when you say "4th and final sp30" does that mean you already have 9 points in the last 3 years?

If you have then it's a 6 month ban unless you can prove exceptional hardship would be caused. No idea on fine, sorry.

EDIT: apparently

:eek:

Yep ....irony of it is, one of the SP30's comes off 3 weeks after court appearance...as for exceptional hardship......without my car it would be virtually impossible for me to do my job.....on 24hr standby for the entire south of England for my company every 4 weeks.......knowing my luck that is not going to be exceptional enough!!

NotoriousREV

I think if you can show that by you not driving it would be detrimental to your company and puts others jobs at risk then that should be enough. Get your MD to lay it on thick

Scooby96

eek - cant you try and get a postponement for 3 weeks and 1 day?

:eek:

Not according to documentation i have received, either i attend or plead by post

BishopDevious

One of my mates was a delivery driver. He loves tinkering with cars (he has a fiat fetish ). He bought an old car and stored it at work until he could finish his driveway off. Late one Sunday night he decided to drive it back to his house, less than a mile I would have said. He was stopped on the industrial estate. (no tax, insurance or MOT). Not exactly a bright thing to do!

He went before the magistrate and explained that he needed his licence for his job. They fined him and put points on his licence but because of his job they stopped short of a ban and left him with eleven points.

Obviously he was very carefull after that. Shortly afterward he found himself a new job.

I wish you the best of luck.

:eek:

Well I guess all I can do is go before the 'beak', explain my circumstances and hope for the best....they means test you before your appearance never knew that....good job court date is payday. Still unsure as to whether a solicitor would be a good thing or not.

Scooby96

Get some free legal advice via your home insurers - if its boderline on a ban get a legal bod to go with you

Jerome

A mate of mine got his boss to go to court with him when up for the totting up ban. Said boss waved my mates P45 at the judge and said "if you ban him, I hand him this". It worked and he kept his licence - despite the 2 offences he was in court for putting him up to 16 points!

I also remember that bint from CoronationEnders (Maxine IIRC) getting off the totting up ban because she needed her car to get to her Anorexia Therapist.

Another "mate" () who couldn't justify keeping his licence due to hardship, gave a short speech to the judge about the speed trap that caught him being there solely for revenue generation and having nothing to do with safety. Said mate just got a 40 quid fine for an SP30 and the compulsory 6 month ban.

Pistol_Pete

,

I was in a postition like this a few years back. I pleaded not guilty and the case was adjorned (?) for a few weeks later by which time points had come off my licence and I got the 3 points but kept my licence.
Are you sure that it will be heard in the same session if you plead not guilty and not be adjorned ?

Whatever happens, I wish you luck with it.

FrenchBoy

If you can afford it get a solicitor (mine cost £500 - but company paid)
What you really need is the backing of your company.
How far would they go to keep you?
A very nice letter goes a long way and a brief will stand in court and respectfully ask that 'you' be punished and not your company.

either way, a brief will know the best way of getting proceedings delayed so your other points drop off.

there are a lot of other things you can do/say. feel free to PM me if you want further details.

M444GY

iTrader: (72)

what? when did this happen? but u might get let off wit a fine due to not severly over da limit. BUT i was in court a few weeks ago and they are a bunch off posh ****** who get paid to much. probably not being much help but as i had to do.. eat humble pie just act innocent and hope for the best at the end of the day 7 mph its not as bad as 150 on the m4 .oops giv us a pm as im an expert at court apperances

M444GY

MooseRacer

Were you texting at the time?

ajm

LOL! da fort X'ed my mind aswell....

imlach

Without trying to be judgemental, obviously you realised that being caught again carried a risk of losing your licence, so did this affect your driving style or not?

The 12-pt totting up procedure is obviously meant to be a deterrent, but it hasn't worked in your case. Out of interest, why didn't it?

I have a friend who was on 9pts, yet it didn't seem to alter his driving behaviour. I find that odd given one more speed camera, and he'd potentially be off the road for 6 months.

So, given your postion, it'd be interesting to hear whether your driving style was altered or not. ie, is the deterrent factor working or not?

ajm

I love responses that start that way

In his defence I think I could put together a fairly convincing case to suggest that the physical requirement on a driver to remain at or below 30 mph in all driving conditions without exception or connection to driving conditions or external stimuli with zero tolerance is significantly higher than that on a driver given a tolerance of 7.001 mph.

It would hold no legal standing of course, but it would explain why a human being, under the shadow of a ban, may commit the heinous crime of 37 in a 30!

imlach

Agreed, I was perhaps amiss in beginning it that way

Just wondering - would YOU not drive like a Saint given that you know your next offence would mean you're off the road for 6 months potentially?

imlach

.....so why is it that ALL learner drivers who pass their driving test have managed to stick to 30mph/the relevant speed limit? Is it perhaps that they know that exceeding 30mph by a significant margin will perhaps lead them to fail their driving test? Not something one wants to do, akin to not wanting to lose your licence.

I expect that most logically thinking people would realise that driving at 37mph during their driving test/learning period would be WRONG, so if you have 9pts on your license, does that knowledgable mentality go out of the window? I suspect not, but somehow, human mentality eggs one on to think, "I'll get away with it this time".

ajm

I'm not in a position to say absolutley, because I have never been on nine points (thankfully) but I am on my second individual set of 3 points. The immediate effect is complete paranoia, you spend more time looking in your rear view mirror than you should do, but this soon gives way to normal driving style, which for me is speeding at about 10-20% above the limit on average. The fact is that most poeple do drive at a speed that is safe for their capabilities, their car and the conditions, its just that this speed is on average higher than the posted limits.

ajm

Learner drivers are not driving naturally, they are having to put several times more concentration into what they are doing and are spending more time looking at the speedo than an experienced driver. Looking at a speedometer is time better spent looking ahead making a judgement on safe speed.

imlach

You could say the same about drink driving limits. There is a law in place, and is it for you to judge if that law is acceptable to you or not?

You may argue that you can drive perfectly well after 3 pints of Guinness, but would you do so, given you know the penalties if caught?

imlach

...and an experienced driver knows what speed he is doing without looking at their instruments.

ajm

LOL! Search the archives... I DO say the same thing about drink driving!

I argue, and always have done, that there should be no speed limits or alcohol limits because both "offences" are covered under the crime of dangerous driving, a subjective offence.

ajm

Exactly, an experienced driver, driving safely is doing a speed that is suitable for the conditions, not an artificially enforced one.

imlach

Let me translate what you said for speeding into the drink driving arena and let me know if it sounds ok

Hmm....makes you think.

ajm

Social conditioning. I have had 3 pints and a kid runs out infront of me through no fault of my own. I have no chance of stopping, but get breathalysed and I am over the limit. I go down for murder.

Does that sound ok?

imlach

That's not what I said. An experienced driver knows what speed he is doing without looking at his instruments. It was nothing to do with conditions. Purely the speed the car is travelling at.

ie, an experienced driver should know they were doing 37mph, and consequently "speeding" in the eyes of the law.

ajm

I am a slave to logic - whilst a subjective unquantifiable law called dangerous driving exists I cannot see why quantifiable offenses such as speeding and drink driving should exist.

imlach

I'm not sure. Does drink-driving automatically lead to a manslaughter charge even if it is proven the kid ran out in front of you?

Being "legally" over the limit wouldn't help your case, as would driving in excess of the "legal" speed limit.

ie,