ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 15:12
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - allroundniceguy

I am looking for some advice about a messy situation I've inadvertently got myself into.

Around 3 Weeks ago I was stopped by the police, it turns unbeknownst to me the insurance had run out on my vehicle. Its due to a chain of regrettable events, my insurance company had contacted me to talk about a renewal, however I had been at work at the time and asked them to call back, they never did. I stupidly assumed it had renewed and carried on, I had completely forgotten that the company had my old address on their records so all correspondence had been sent to them.

When I was stopped by the police, they advised that I was going to be fined £200 and would be contacted by a local police office within 14 days (I was stopped in a different city). To this date I have received no correspondence and unfortunately have managed to lose the ticket.

I contacted the fixed penalty office and they advised me that there are no points on my licence, I have also checked on the DVLA website, and it has stated that there are no endorsements on my record.

The operator on the fixed penalty line said that the fine should have been for £300 and not 200 and its possible that they issued the wrong fine and subsequently cancelled the ticket.

I'm preying this is true, but am worried that I've missed something, and am concerned that if I leave it at that I will incur prosecution and even a driving ban.

At the same time I don't want the case to be reopened by digging around too much, it really was a genuine mistake and I need my vehicle (and ideally an affordable insurance premium).

I don't want to break the law any further; I'm not a criminal, just a bit of a scatty person. my vehicle is now fully insured and I just want to get on with my normal life.

Any advice will be warmly received as this is causing me and my partner considerable anxiety.

Edited by Avant on 15/10/2014 at 01:04

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 15:18
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - thunderbird

Something wrong here.

If you are stopped by the Police for having no insurance (which you admit to) your car would have been impounded, the police would not have allowed an uninsured driver to simply carry on driving an uninsurred vehicle with only the promise of a fine.

So tell us the whole story.

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 15:21
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - RobJP

All you can really do is wait. You've admitted you are at fault, you've spoken to the fixed penalty office, checked with DVLA ...

Make sure your address details are up to date with DVLA (both your licence and your car V5), you've said your insurance is all in order now, and if you're really lucky, it'll fall through the cracks in the system.

If it did come to a prosecution, then you aren't going to get a ban for it. You'd just attend court, plead guilty, apologise for the offence and taking up the court's time, and leave with a fine and a few points.

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 15:26
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - allroundniceguy

The police were really nice about it all and let me call up and buy new insurance on the spot.

You say I wouldn't get a ban, but if it did go to court, would the points you meantioned be added to the standard 6 points for driving without insurance?

the woman at the fixed penalty office gave me the number for the local police penalty ticking line, but I'm scared that if I call them and it has fallen through the cracks, that call will drop me back in it. But I'm also scared that if I leave it the situation will get worse.

Could it be getting delayed because of the fact that its two different police departments? Surely the endorsement would be showing on my record already?

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 15:49
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - allroundniceguy

hmm so I just manned up and called the central ticketing line, who advised me that there are no tickets on record coming up at all!!!!!
does this mean that its deffinatly fallen through the cracks?

The other thing is Im pretty certain that they took my counterpart to have the points added to it, so that must be in the system somewhere - is this going to come back to bite me?

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 15:50
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - Dwight Van Driver

Stopped - found no Insurance cover - Plod has power to issue FPN for £300 and take your DLicence for points (6). Also has power to seize your vehicle which is usually the case.

Yet there is no mention of any of this.???????????????????

The only scenario I can possible imagine is that in allowing you to take out Insurance at ther roadside and having confirmed with Insi Co that is so then there is the possibliltyInsurance Co may have tyold him thery considered themselves at risk before the stop i.e. a continuation of cover from expiry date..Who knows.?????????????? If correct buy a lottery ticket.

ONly way you can have peace of min is to phone \Insurance Com and find out if it they treated it as a continuation at roadside renewal. IF not then contact Force that stopped you and get it sorted one way or the other. IF process in bveing it will not go away and could sting if there is to be Court case.

dvd

Just seen your post above. No FPN issued then if not Court case which takes time to prepare so next step if ttreu a long wait and summons through the door.

Edited by Dwight Van Driver on 14/10/2014 at 15:52

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 16:06
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - allroundniceguy

hmm but the FPN was issued on the spot, are you saying that because the time to pay it had elapsed it has now gone on to court proceedings? surely the call handler would have at least had a record that the fine had not been paid? he told me that there were no tickets on my record . . .

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 16:07
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - allroundniceguy

also the FPN was issued for 200 rather than the standard 300 which might indicate that the officer made a mistake?

Also wouldn't the endorsement be on record somewhere?

there is no way the insurance firm marked it up as a continuation (I dont think so anyway) as it was set up with a different organisation

would a summons mean I incur even higher insurance premiums? I really need to avoid this as they're currently asking for £3500 per year due to the invisible endorsment

NB they also threatened to empound the vehicle but my girlfreind appealed to their better nature as we were about to drive home and would have been completely stranded

Edited by allroundniceguy on 14/10/2014 at 16:12

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 17:11
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - allroundniceguy

Any more thoughts guys? Am I likely to recieve a summons as I didnt pay the fine in the first 14 days? surely there would be some record of the original fine somewhere on the system, not to meantion the endorsment and penalty points, or are they only issued once the fine has been paid?

Could it be because its between two police departments?

Edited by allroundniceguy on 14/10/2014 at 17:11

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 20:07
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - allroundniceguy

bump bump (no pun intended!)

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Tue 14 Oct 2014 20:35
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - RobJP

You'll just have to be patient, and wait and see what (if anything) happens. It could take months.

On the positive side, I think that if nothing further happens within 6 months, they can't then take out proceedings. Though I'd be happy to be corrected, if I'm wrong.

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Wed 15 Oct 2014 17:05
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - allroundniceguy

Quick update - I rooted through some boxes today and found my paper license - this jogged my memory and I remembered that the officer had gone to take my paper license only to find that it had the old address on it, the rest is a bit hazy.

I had it in my mind that he had advised that a local police would be in touch to ask me to bring the license in. I realsie this sounds mega flakey - why didnt he just ask me to take it to any local police station - does it have to be to a specific station? (I live in a big city with multiple councils)

What I'm worried about is that he actually voided the FPN and asked me to hold on to it for proof and did tell me to take it straight to a local station, and now the 7 days have passed they're preparing to summons me (and levy much higher fines)

If that were th case, would it explain why there is no record of the FPN, the endorsment or the points (as I'm guess all that would come after the court case?)

I've spoken to citerzans advise who told me to grip the nettle and go in to the police station, and a lawyer who said my choices where to do that, or hold tight, stating that central ticketing would have some record even if it was just admin, but then again he would have a vested interest in me going to court wouldn't he!

Arggh really don't know how to play this its stressing me out and my girl is lossing sleep over it . . .

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Wed 15 Oct 2014 17:39
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - RobJP
Arggh really don't know how to play this its stressing me out and my girl is lossing sleep over it . . .

You are creating the stress. You've spoken to DVLA, you've now got current insurance.

It might be difficult, but stop, take a moment. Look at the bigger picture. If you'd been given 7 days to produce documents, and had failed to do so, then you would be showing up on DVLA database. The police would KNOW that you were of interest, rather than saying that there's nothing on the system for you.

Don't go borrowing trouble.

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Wed 15 Oct 2014 17:48
ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system - allroundniceguy

Mate that is reassuring, are you certain that the endorsment would be showing with the DVLA - wouldn't it be left clean until after a hearing at a magistrates court?

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