A friend* of mine just found out he got nicked for speeding 2 and a half years ago! It was in a bucket of post delivered to the new house by an ex girlfriend that never got opened.

The letter says 36mph in a 30 zone. 3pts and a 60pound fine or go on a speed awareness course.

Since this alleged speeding incident he has registered his car to his new address, updated his driving licence to the new address and re insured his car twice stating he has no convictions. At no point has the mention of a speeding offence raised its head.

He called his ex girlfriend (they are on good terms so no chance of a wind up) and she has said no balifs have called demanding £1000 and no post either.

What should he do? Do the authorities write these sort of things off after a while?

He sort of assumes that after so long and so many chances for the system to catch up with him that it has ‘gone away’

Any help or good advice welcomed.

the friend, if inclined to do the right thing, should contact the relevant fixed penalty unit, explain the situation and see what they say, but be prepared to send of payment and both parts of their drivers licence.

I think Id call up and just take the speed awareness course. Saves a lot of hassle and potentially invalid car insurance.

First off you’re a tit for speeding, full stop.

Does statute barred work in these cases? Ok you’ll have to wait for another three years but if they haven’t found you and the rozzers haven’t exactly been after you either.

A couple of years back out of the blue I got a letter from a collection agency who’d bought a debt I had with barclay card from when I was last an uni. I’d run up a grand on a credit card then moved to jersey and yadada they never caught up with me as I travelled and moved around a bit…settle down and electoral roll and all that I get the letter.

I wrote this standard letter http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2606811 never heard from them again 🙂

First off you’re a tit for speeding, full stop.

Does statute barred work in these cases? Ok you’ll have to wait for another three years but if they haven’t found you and the rozzers haven’t exactly been after you either.

A couple of years back out of the blue I got a letter from a collection agency who’d bought a debt I had with barclay card from when I was last an uni. I’d run up a grand on a credit card then moved to jersey and yadada they never caught up with me as I travelled and moved around a bit…settle down and electoral roll and all that I get the letter.

I wrote this standard letter http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2606811 never heard from them again

Your a tit for spending someone else money with no intention to pay it back. In the criminal top trumps I think theft beats speeding ….

More people die of speeding than of theft.

A couple of years back out of the blue I got a letter from a collection agency who’d bought a debt

Lowell?

More people die of speeding than of theft.

No-one dies of speeding. It’s the sudden stop afterwards that’s the problem.

do they ??
Let’s see the statistics?

PS I am not condoning speedin in a 30 or a 40 limit ( I don’t BTW). But someone casting the first stone, when they have just admitted proudly defrauding their credit card is a bit rich

speeding really isnt that bad, providing it’s not excessive, and conditions permitting.

intentionally maxing a credit card then ‘going on the run’ is just a massively pikey thing to do 🙄 .

First off you’re a tit for speeding, full stop.

You wins the internet

12fifty – Member
First off you’re a tit for speeding, full stop.

I read 80% of motorists break the speed limit. That’s a lot of tits I suppose.

OP. Ordinarily if you ignore the first letter you get a second and then a court summons. I would imagine the gf threw the others away. Two choices are to do nothing on the basis the police authority have forgotten about it (its all on an automatic system) or to contact them explaining situation (I would go more with the gf never gave you the letter until now and/or it was in a box of stuff you never looked at). I imagine it will be more hassle for them to process it now given time that has passed than ignore it which is possibly why you never got chased.

do they ??
Let’s see the statistics?

It being a quiet day at work, I thought, just for the sake of entertainment, I’d have a bit of a look – I very soon ran out of interest, but just as I was about to give up, I spotted this –

In 2010, 241 people were killed in crashes involving someone exceeding the speed limit and a further 180 people died when someone was travelling too fast for the conditions.

– Source – RoSPA
It’s an interesting distinction they make, I’m not entirely sure I know what the difference is.

Still trying to find stats for theft-related murders in the UK, but I did stumble across this particular gem –

There is a total number of 765 people murdered in the UK each year. This number represents people who were murdered by homicide.

I’m not entirely sure I know what the difference is.

I would imagine speeding is as it sounds, breaking the speed limit and travelling too fast for the conditions would be still doing 70mph in dense fog or in the pelting rain. Not illegal but stupid all the same.

Still trying to find stats for theft-related murders in the UK

Doesn’t have to be murder, bear in mind. People can have heart attacks from the shock (there was a hospital documentary on TV the other day where an old woman was in for exactly that).

people who were murdered by homicide

Are there other ways to be murdered?

Well, it seems that not being involved with a speeding car is more dangerous than being involved with one if pondo’s stats are correct:

421 Deaths due to speed

765 Deaths due to murder (I suspect you’re less likely to become a murder victim whilst driving quickly)

So has he only just opened the letter or has he had another letter? How does he know about it? If it’s been to court without him being present he may has been issued with a fine which will not have been payed. SO he may find there is a warrant out for his arrest. Possibly.

I would imagine speeding is as it sounds, breaking the speed limit and travelling too fast for the conditions would be still doing 70mph in dense fog or in the pelting rain. Not illegal but stupid all the same.

That’s the difference isn’t it. One’s illegal and the other is dangerous. Ie, if the speed limits are set appropriately, then driving above the speed limit will also be driving too fast for the conditions, by definition.

The alternative would be that you’ve just committed the heinous crime of driving faster than a number someone arbitrarily made up for no good reason, which would seem crazy, would it not?

Are there other ways to be murdered?

Homicide by murder.

What are the stats on barclays executives committing suicide because a customer has broken the bond of trust placed upon them.

We must remember that barclays are an organisation constantly striving for the betterment of mankind, and would not under any circumstances try to illegally manipulate money markets and commit massive fraud against everyone.

Are there other ways to be murdered?

Yep. There’s ‘bad’ murdering and then ‘good’ murdering.

A lot of similar stuff was discussed a couple of weeks ago Court or points

Your experience seems similar to mine, although mine was a much shorter timescale. It also seems to back up what I heard from someone who insists that he always ignores any speeding fines and they never chase him up. However, this was largely discredited by STW.

Personally, if I was you I would ignore it. If “they” really wanted you that would of found you out by now. Especially baliffs, if they have a debt issued by a court they are straight on it as there is no disputing it. I know this from several years ago because of working away, TV licence, fine, girlfriend used wrong bank acc, cheque bounced etc etc, at my door almost immediately, I knew nothing about it!

I wonder if there is a way of finding out if there has been a warrent issued.

The alternative would be that you’ve just committed the heinous crime of driving faster than a number someone arbitrarily made up for no good reason, which would seem crazy, would it not?

The motorway speed limit is exactly this – an arbitrary number – surely?

What is dangerous about doing, say, 80mph on a dry, empty, motorway? (Bit of an hypothetical question, I suppose: I can’t recall seeing such a thing recently!)

First off you’re a tit for speeding, full stop.

I debate this with you, but I don’t have a megaphone loud enough for you to hear way up there.

I read 80% of motorists break the speed limit. That’s a lot of tits I suppose.

That few?

I would be surprised if any motorist had never broken a speed limit at some point in their driving history.

To answer the OP’s questions:

What should he do? Do the authorities write these sort of things off after a while?

He sort of assumes that after so long and so many chances for the system to catch up with him that it has ‘gone away’

Go to Pepipoo and ask there.

The advice will probably be to go to local magistrates court and make a statutory declaration, and then the original fine can be reimposed with a guilty plea etc. Points are applied from the date of the offence so will be either expired or about to come off anyway.

Theoretically fines can be “written off” after a period of time, but this is only likely to happen with trivial amounts (not £1000), and after warrants for non payment have gone unanswered for a number of years. Its a brave man who is certain he won’t come to the attention of the police (e.g. speeding, brake light out, or even at passport control – you know that “police desk” behind the border staff!) – get picked up late on a friday and you’ll be in custody all weekend.

He also needs to be aware that there is a risk that if he didn’t return his license for the points to be added that DVLA can revoke it (more letters in the bucket?) and then he can be prosecuted for no license.

As he is now aware of it – if he pretends he is not, then in six months time if the preverbial hits the fan he can’t claim ignorance without risking perjury!

poly wins.

Just for interest sakes the 70mph limit was based on the capabilities of human reactions and a Ford Anglia… something tells me modern cars can stop a wee bit better than one of those.

The speed patronisation awareness course I went on said that whilst cars have improved, human reaction is the more important part and that hasn’t changed.

Where was the ‘offence’ committed, since Scotland has different laws to England & Wales.

Has he found the original NIP, which is where the driver has to declare it was him driving and thus admitting guilt?
If the offence was in Scotland you can ignore that as there is precedence in law that you do not have to admit guilt unless under caution and the case will automatically cancel after 6mths of the NIP.
If in England, ignore that and you have commited another offence, so they are then chasing you for 2 offences!!

something tells me modern cars can stop a wee bit better than one of those.

can modern humans react quicker?

I’d be rather surprised if it isn’t more than that who speed every time they get in a car. Purely based on anecdotal observations of how many people I get sitting behind me when I drive at the speed limit in a 30.

Purely based on anecdotal observations of how many people I get sitting behind me when I drive at the speed limit in a 30.

Most speedometers aren’t overly accurate and will over-read, so the indicated speed isn’t necessarily the speed you’re doing. Less of an issue at 30, but on a motorway it’s possible to get all self-righteous about how you’re doing 70 and everyone else is speeding when the reality is you’re probably closer to 60 than 70.

Your a tit for spending someone else money with no intention to pay it back. In the criminal top trumps I think theft beats speeding…

I ‘stole’ £800 from the RBS in 1998 and you think that trumps doing 36 in a 30?

Are you serious!

Cougar – Moderator
The speed patronisation awareness course I went on said that whilst cars have improved, human reaction is the more important part and that hasn’t changed.

Couger agree with your sentiments exactly.

I attended one and it was pretty useless but it did educate me in what actually classes certain types of roads.

They came out with this bollocks about stopping distance being the same as well.

The instructor was very anti cyclist as well, so were most of the class mind! The only road user you could be negative about.

I ‘stole’ £800 from the RBS in 1998 and you think that trumps doing 36 in a 30?

Yep. The £800 was a real loss which cost share holders / customers. The speeding didn’t cost anyone anything.

Well, I’ve learnt something new today.

Committing a crime isn’t too bad, so long as you stand next to someone that’s done something worse.

Committing a crime isn’t too bad, so long as you stand next to someone that’s done something worse.

Speeding isn’t a crime.

Speeding isn’t a crime.

Yes it is.

from another thread:

you have confused “criminal offence” with “recordable offence” – it’s not a recordable offence, but although it’s a criminal conviction, you do not have your fingerprints and DNA taken, so it is NOT recorded on the Police National Computer. It is, of course, kept on your Driver Record by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport, and the DVLA/PNC link means that your driver history (including endorsements) is available online to the police. The criminal law and motoring law are NOT two distinctly different branches of the legal system anywhere in the UK (perhaps you are confused about the civil law?), and statute law just means law that is enacted by statute (i.e. Parliament) as opposed to the Common Law, which evolves through history through the judgements by competent Courts.

You will have lost the opportunity to go on the speed awareness course. I had this recently when I failed to register my car at a new address. I had registed my driving licence, they tracked me through that, but by the time the NIP arrived I just had to take the points.