Have you done much driving chum?

igrf, I drive around 60,000 miles a year and as yet have not had a single ticket or point on my licence so i must be doing something right.

I have lived in the 50mph section of the M1 and M62 for the last few years and never had an issue and neither have my colleagues who drive a similar amount of miles.

If you are getting tickets its for a reason.

Speeding fines are only a tax on people ‘challenged’ by simple concepts. When you got your licence you agreed to abide by the laws and guidelines set out clearly in the highway code. If you don’t like it, may I suggest you send your licence back to the dvla along with a strongly worded letter and refrain from driving till the matter is resolved.

Minor clerical errors do not cause any prosecution to fail, they just get amended if/when it goes to court.

beg to differ…. I got caught on my motorbike about 5 year ago and when it went to court the judge threw it out, the NIP was sent to my company name (was the same as my name with Ltd on the end) and I filled it in and sent it back citing me personally as the rider. They continued to pursue the company, I wrote another letter back informing them again and gave my excuse for being over the speed limit.

The ‘Manager of the Central Ticket Office’ wrote back with the shortest letter ever simply saying “we have read your letter, this does not excuse speeding” so I wrote one back asking for an officer of the law, judge or jury to hear my case and not an administration officer and it when it went to court the judge agreed that it was an unsafe case.

If I were the OP i’d take it to court, put the co-ordinates in and print off a picture of the co-ordinates in the field and say how can I do 79Mph in a field your honour??

Normally around 65mph or a bit less

Mines a black and orange Vito

So you do speed, anything over 60mph on a dual carriageway in a Vito is speeding and over 50 will get you points on a single carriageway.

Mind how yo go there! ( Mucho ironing there).

Breadcrumb, http://www.ehow.com/how_7931167_do-install-speedometer-gear-cable.html

Owen

You’ve admitted you were breaking the law so stop being a bellend and pay the fine and take the points. That’s what happens when you break the law. You get punished. There’s enough people on here that rant when the police don’t punish bike thieves and such like.

Do the crime, serve the time. Otherwise drive within the speed limit.

Tom KP

But I would contact them, explain what you’ve discovered about the given location and see if they amend the location or drop it.

So you do speed, anything over 60mph on a dual carriageway in a Vito is speeding and over 50 will get you points on a single carriageway.
Mind how yo go there! ( Mucho ironing there).

Nice try 🙄

I was talking about Motorway Driving when I said “normally 65 mph or a bit less”

Plus I also drive a car, the Vito is for Work.

Shame really

I bet you thought you had a really good point there didn’t you ? 😉

As I said before, I don’t speed. (And I’m aware of the speed limits for vans too)

Does nobody follow the old adage about ‘rules’?

You know, being for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men?

No?

Enjoy that skiing do you? Ever wondered why you have to carry those pole things everywhere?

To bat the heads of the perfect in passing? Hard to reach otherwise, up there on their high horses.

I normally park myself and my board just over the edge of a good slope and wait for the high horse riders to panic snow plough stop 😯 “this is a joke by the way, just incase the humour gene has been removed”

Does nobody follow the old adage about ‘rules’?

You know, being for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men?

No?

Always amused at people who are so conceited that they believe this shite.

‘Laws’ tend to be regarded slightly differently.

Matt

Just a thought.

Say you were driving up the A1 one day. Say you’re in the Bawtry area, for arguments sake. As most of us are wont to do, the speedo creeps past 70, past 80, maybe even touching 85. Yes the limit is 70, but the entire traffic flow is geared towards a more “robust” speed, so it’s actually maybe possibly a bit safer to go with the flow.

10-or-so miles up the road, you’re passing the Doncaster area and traffic is sluggish, due to the horse-racing meet. 45-50 mph tops. And on your journey continues.

A couple of days later, a NIP drops through the letterbox. You’ve been “caught” at 83mph on the Doncaster Racecourse turnoff of the A1.

What do all you hand-wringing, holier-than-thou, pious types do? Take it on the chin, because yes, you were speeding 10 miles down the road, so all things work out in the end? Didn’t think so.

What, exactly, is different to OP’s situation? Plod say he’s speeding in a place he most definitely wasn’t (assuming OP isn’t a bare-faced liar….) Whether he was speeding half a mile away or 10 miles away is irrelevant. He wasn’t speeding where plod says he was. The law is an extremely particular ass, as I know to my cost, so it has to work the same both ways.

Ever wondered why you have to carry those pole things everywhere?

Well, apart from enhancing my turning and balance, no, not really. Oh, and I don’t HAVE to carry them. I choose to. No law dictates that I have to have them.

What, exactly, is different to OP’s situation?

This is the thing.

Irrespective of the fact that the OP believes he was exceeding the limit at some point, if the location of the alleged offence on the NIP is incorrect then how can we be sure that the rest of the accusation is correct?

Let me reword the OP slightly,

Been clocked doing 79mph on the A66 which I deny.
The location they have given in the form of a 12 digit grid reference does not relate to where the Cumbria Safety Camera van was parked up.
Where they state the location of he van was, my speed was 60mph.

Now where do we stand? How would the ivory tower brigade have responded to that as an OP?

Are these “types”, people who if caught speeding, accept it and pay up or some other group ?

I was trundling down the A9 at 50mph today and had an arctic (a) catch up with me and (b) drive ridiculously close behind me. Still, at least I did my civic duty be preventing him further transgressing the law.

haha you’ve reworded it slightly!!! It’s gone from “I accept that I was speeding” to “I deny that I was speeding” 😆

I was trundling down the A9 at 50mph today and had an arctic (a) catch up with me and (b) drive ridiculously close behind me.

I find that easing off the loud pedal momentarily and then accelerating back to speed sorts that out. They generally learn after three or four times.

haha you’ve reworded it slightly!!!

I believe I did say that.

It’s gone from “I accept that I was speeding” to “I deny that I was speeding”

Yep, something that makes it very, very different, and rather pointless really, given the OP’s OP which was, to paraphrase, “I was speeding. Oops. Silly me. I got caught, but there’s some technicality I could try and wrangle around, costing the police and courts much time and money but making me feel better about it by sticking in to the man, man”

😉

You dont need them sticks for skiing Flashy, but they are great for poking us snowboarders in the lift line 😀 going a bit off thread but have you seen the powder in Europe !!!! Going in Feb and April but we really should just jack it all in and go out there NOW !!! I will if you will ……

Are these people who if caught speeding, accept it and pay up or some other group ?

Dunno yet. None of them have answered my question.

I’d say they’re armchair legal enthusiasts with a passing knowledge gained from various ITV “Traffic Cops” style programming, a twisted Animal Farm “four wheels bad, two wheels good” mentality, and not enough nous to drive to the conditions of the road, weather and surrounding traffic because some half-remembered braking distance chart devised in 1931 suggests it might be dangerous to do so.
EDIT: and a misguided belief that all of the above makes them safer drivers.

Would that be “other group”?

Stuff like this really pisses me off. You were speeding. You got caught. You are trying to wangle out of it on a technicality. Why should you be a special case?

Perhaps this will convince you to knock 10mph off your speed next time and you’ll be able to stop when you go around a corner and find a stationary car in your lane rather than ploughing into the back of it.

Take whatever punishment you are given and learn from it FFS.

Yep, something that makes it very, very different,

Well, no, it’s exactly the same question, only without admission of guilt. As soon as the OP said he thought he was guilty, you lot all ran for the pitchforks rather than answering the question.

If he’d not been so candid here regarding his transgression but still asked the exact same question, would he have got the same response? I doubt it.

Stuff like this really pisses me off. You were speeding. You got caught. You are trying to wangle out of it on a technicality. Why should you be a special case?

Because the correct procedure is in place to prevent miscarriages of justice, and we can’t have that, can we?

Why should you be a special case?

Because the evidence presented is incorrect.

<wallops the side of the Internet>

Two different arguments here;
A) should he accept the fine and pay up morally speaking; yes, probably.
B) would the prosecution case stand up in court legally? I’m no expert, but it’s less than definite.

Bit like ‘should I pay for my tv licence, as I don’t watch live telly, but use the iplayer, BBC website, and BBC radio’ discussion, really.

CaptainFlashheart – Member
Ever wondered why you have to carry those pole things everywhere?
Well, apart from enhancing my turning and balance, no, not really. Oh, and I don’t HAVE to carry them. I choose to. No law dictates that I have to have them.

No, it’s not a law, but it is a ‘rule’ which you could choose to break, with er ‘free will’ that little gift we all have and can choose to exercise.

I’m surprised you ski, you are one of my favourite posters on this sight excellent wit and repartee, I also note you choose to wakeboard with that free will of yours, so I can’t help wondering why you don’t choose to free your mind on the mountain. Not that it’s any of my business of course, just wondering. Back to the poles thing you skiers have the benefit of our sidecuts these days so really no need for all that pole planting and I’m wondering why y’all still hang on to them. I gave up skiing in 93 after a nasty Avalanche incident and having learned to snowboard, never went back.

Not that this has anything whatsoever to do with dodging speeding fines, so pardon the red herring.

Because the correct procedure is in place to prevent miscarriages of justice, and we can’t have that, can we?

He admitted he was speeding during the course of the journey.

It’s not the bloody Birmingham Six, you know. It is playing the system to evade a punishment that was merited.

Why do people think this is some sort of sophisticated game of ‘legal’ cat and mouse with those draconian authorities?

Driving a motor vehicle is the one thing nearly all of us do that can easily lead to serious death or injury of others – why do you think motor insurance is mandatory?

There are two people at my work who have been whingeing recently about being caught speeding and the ‘inconvenience’ of it all. Try telling that to the family of someone who has been killed by a speeding driver.

Don’t take the piss.

Would your colleagues be whingeing if they’d killed someone as a result of their speed?

If you are getting tickets its for a reason.

Yep. Poor observation. It’s quite easy to do 120+ every time you start the engine and never get caught.

Egg f***ing zactly.

I’m not saying that I’m perfect in this respect, either.

I had a SP30 four and a bit years ago. About 6-45am on a Saturday morning on the way to the birth of my daughter.

I could have mentioned this in the hope of evading a punishment – and may well have got away with it. As it was, it was a planned caesarean, so I would have been being economical with the truth at best. Actually I would have been being deceitful and using the birth of a child to dodge a warranted punishment.

I was just a bit over-eager to get there – but I was still in the wrong – no argument. It really is that simple.

Is the grid reference error contained within a Fixed Penalty Offer or has the matter already gone to court and this error is contained within the prosecution evidence?

If it’s in a Fixed Penalty Offer then it makes f all difference. That’s not a presentation of the evidence, a typo in there will not undermine any future prosecution if he declines their offer – which is an offer to dispose of the matter with a FPN rather than prosecute him.

It’s just the same as if they sent me one and put Kenny Senor not Kenny Senior – that’s not a technicality that fatally undermines the prosecution.

If the OP had a FP offer and turns it down, he’ll get summonsed to court, where evidence will be led by the prosecution that camera van such-and-such was parked in layby such-and-such at 5 o’clock on whatever day, when bren2709 drove past at 79mph where the limit is 60mph. And here’s a video of him doing it.

You will not avoid a conviction because someone has mistyped or misread a grid reference in an item of preliminary correspondence. I know this from first hand experience 🙁

Regardless of whether I think that the OP should cough up, this isn’t ‘playing the system’. The fact that both parties are expected to produce evidence that is factually accurate is a fairly basic foundation upon which our legal system is built. Slippery slopes and all that.

EDIT; not a reply to kenny senior, who makes a good point from experience.

both parties are expected to produce evidence that is factually accurate

Which, if it goes to court, is exactly what they’ll do.

Why do people think this is some sort of sophisticated game of ‘legal’ cat and mouse with those draconian authorities?

Because, for better or worse, that’s exactly what our legal system is.

The OP believes he is in the wrong. However, he may be mistaken. This is why we require these pesky little details like ‘evidence’ in order to obtain a conviction.

But surely inciting someone to defend themselves based on the incorrect evidence you claim to be prosecuting them on and then whipping out different evidence in court isn’t exactly fair…?

Again, I speak from personal experience, the different evidence presented wasn’t even relevant and I still got shafted due to the layperson magistrates’ vague grasp on the use of tense in the English language.

Because, for better or worse, that’s exactly what our legal system is.

Oh god, another one who has just finished ‘Bakunin for Beginners’.

I despair – unless this is a mickey take.

This is not extraorinary rendition. It is not the Birmingham Six. It is not Winston Silcott.

It is a speeding offence for someone who was speeding anyway.

Time to grow up.

This is not extraorinary rendition. It is not the Birmingham Six. It is not Winston Silcott.

It is a speeding offence for someone who was speeding anyway.

Time to grow up.
Agreed, there’s nothing worse than over reacting in these situations.
Let’s hope no-one gets a ticket beacuse plod have written the wrong details down, I mean, it’s just a technicality. Just shut up and pay up.