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UK speeding ticket whilst visiting from the US
sunsetbch
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 03:55
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I was visiting the UK in May from the US. I’m not a UK resident but I just happen to be in the UK and borrowed a car whilst there (in which I was fully insured on with my US drivers license). I was caught on camera doing 35 in a 30 mile zone. A letter was sent to my friend and I told them to give my details as I was the driver at the time. Well the Metropolitan Police sent me a letter inviting me to do a National Speed Awareness Course as an alternative to points or prosecution. Again, not a UK resident or have a UK driver’s license which they require to show to book the online course. Should I send them a letter asking to be excused? My correspondence with them has been by mail and there is no email for them on the letter they sent me.
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post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 03:55
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baroudeur
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 10:14
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QUOTE (sunsetbch @ Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 04:55) *
I was visiting the UK in May from the US. I’m not a UK resident but I just happen to be in the UK and borrowed a car whilst there (in which I was fully insured on with my US drivers license). I was caught on camera doing 35 in a 30 mile zone. A letter was sent to my friend and I told them to give my details as I was the driver at the time. Well the Metropolitan Police sent me a letter inviting me to do a National Speed Awareness Course as an alternative to points or prosecution. Again, not a UK resident or have a UK driver’s license which they require to show to book the online course. Should I send them a letter asking to be excused? My correspondence with them has been by mail and there is no email for them on the letter they sent me.


Your friend gave a UK address for you and you received the NSAC at that address? There seems to be some correspondence missing. Why wasn't a US address supplied as per your licence?

This post has been edited by baroudeur: Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 10:15
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Jlc
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 10:53
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Indeed, I doubt they'd post a letter to the states offering a course. (The more likely response to a US address is to ask about insurance)


--------------------
RK=Registered Keeper, OP=Original Poster (You!), CoFP=Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty, NtK=Notice to Keeper, NtD=Notice to Driver
PoFA=Protection of Freedoms Act, SAC=Safety Awareness Course, NIP=Notice of Intended Prosecution, ADR=Alternative Dispute Resolution
PPC=Private Parking Company, LBCCC=Letter Before County Court Claim, PII=Personally Identifiable Information, SAR=Subject Access Request

Private Parking - remember, they just want your money and will say almost anything to get it.
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Logician
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 10:55
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I do not believe it will be possible for you to do the course, why not just accept the fixed penalty? In financial terms it will be much the same as taking the course, as you have no UK licence the DVLA would create a Driver's Record for you and put the points on that.
The alternative is to simply ignore it all and go home, but that might create some difficulties for your friend. I would be interested to know how he managed to get you insured, since I found it completely impossible to get insurance for my American cousin when he visited, either with my existing insurers or specialist short term insurers and I tried all I could find.


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sunsetbch
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 15:18
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A NIP was sent to him, owner of the car and he completed the form saying I was driving and gave my US address. They then sent a NIP to my US address and I sent it back with a copy of my US driving license. Thought that was the end of it but then I got an "invitation letter" to enroll in the National Speed Awareness Course. There is no penalty to pay (maybe because I was just doing 5 miles over) otherwise I would just pay and be done with it. It's just the course as an alternative to the points on my license (which I don't have a UK license). As far as being insured on his car, yes, not sure who his insurance company is, but I needed a letter from my US car insurance saying I was a good driver and have not made any claims in the last few years and I was able to be added as named driver on his car.
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andy_foster
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 16:40
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An SAC is an alternative to a penalty, but the course fee (from which the police get a £35 kick-back) is similar to the level of a fixed penalty - but you avoid the points (that would be recorded on a UK 'ghost licence'). Much of the course is spent telling the victims how great value it is because it saves them the increased insurance premiums 5 times over (deliberately ignoring that any loading falls off on a sliding scale over those 5 years).

The only real point of doing an SAC is to avoid having the points on your licence (which in your case would be a UK 'ghost licence' that would only affect you driving in the UK).

Some people also learn that commercial vehicles (e.g. large vans) are limited to 60 on a dual carriageway and 50 on a single carriageway., and that a non-motorway road with street lighting and no speed limit signs is a 30 limit. You shouldn't need to spend the thick end of £100 and waste half a day to learn that.


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sunsetbch
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 18:02
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Okay, so back to my original question, what do you think I should do? Having points on a 'ghost license' doesn't really effect me as I will never have a UK drivers license. Do I send them a letter asking for forgiveness? If I just ignore it, is there any consequences when it comes to renting a car or borrowing a car like I did in May.
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thisisntme
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 18:05
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QUOTE (sunsetbch @ Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 19:02) *
Okay, so back to my original question, what do you think I should do? Having points on a 'ghost license' doesn't really effect me as I will never have a UK drivers license. Do I send them a letter asking for forgiveness? If I just ignore it, is there any consequences when it comes to renting a car or borrowing a car like I did in May.



There are consequences if you reach 12 points on the ghost licence - you would receive the same ban on UK roads as any other driver would.


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sunsetbch
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 21:02
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QUOTE (thisisntme @ Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 18:05) *
QUOTE (sunsetbch @ Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 19:02) *
Okay, so back to my original question, what do you think I should do? Having points on a 'ghost license' doesn't really effect me as I will never have a UK drivers license. Do I send them a letter asking for forgiveness? If I just ignore it, is there any consequences when it comes to renting a car or borrowing a car like I did in May.



There are consequences if you reach 12 points on the ghost licence - you would receive the same ban on UK roads as any other driver would.



I think the chances are pretty slim considering this is my first EVER speeding ticket of 31 years driving laugh.gif
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cp8759
post Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 23:13
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Aren't many of these courses now conducted online?

That being said, if they've been given a UK address and you give them your US address, odds are they will just drop it.


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If you would like assistance with a penalty charge notice, please post a thread on https://www.ftla.uk/index.php
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BertB
post Thu, 18 Aug 2022 - 08:09
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QUOTE (cp8759 @ Thu, 18 Aug 2022 - 00:13) *
That being said, if they've been given a UK address and you give them your US address, odds are they will just drop it.


Already done, and they didn't.

QUOTE (sunsetbch @ Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 16:18) *
A NIP was sent to him, owner of the car and he completed the form saying I was driving and gave my US address. They then sent a NIP to my US address and I sent it back with a copy of my US driving license.
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The Rookie
post Thu, 18 Aug 2022 - 08:19
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I think CP means if the 'kind offer' of a SAC isn't taken up ($ signs in their eyes!) they'll just drop it.


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roythebus
post Thu, 18 Aug 2022 - 10:37
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Are you still in the UK or back in the US? I'd tend to ignore it if you're back home. They are very unlikely to chase you for a speeding ticket. They may give the registered keeper some grief but if you've admitted being the driver, there's very ittle you can do. Personally I wouldn't bother about insurance letters or anything, forget it and get on with life.

Yes there may be 3 points on your "ghost" UK licence but it won't affect your US licence. I had a Swedish friend who got snapped driving my car too fast a few years back. I named him, police wrote to him, he ignored the letter, nobody heard any more about it. don't offer more information than they ask for.
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sunsetbch
post Thu, 18 Aug 2022 - 16:39
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QUOTE (roythebus @ Thu, 18 Aug 2022 - 10:37) *
Are you still in the UK or back in the US? I'd tend to ignore it if you're back home. They are very unlikely to chase you for a speeding ticket. They may give the registered keeper some grief but if you've admitted being the driver, there's very ittle you can do. Personally I wouldn't bother about insurance letters or anything, forget it and get on with life.

Yes there may be 3 points on your "ghost" UK licence but it won't affect your US licence. I had a Swedish friend who got snapped driving my car too fast a few years back. I named him, police wrote to him, he ignored the letter, nobody heard any more about it. don't offer more information than they ask for.


I'm in the US now, I was just in the UK for a few weeks in May. When I sent back the NIP saying I was the driver, I sent a copy of my US license with the form. I was very surprised they sent me the letter to do the course and even more surprised they sent a 2nd letter saying that I have not signed up for the course yet. I actually did write a grovel letter yesterday to them. You are probably right though, I should just have ignored it. I just didn't want my friend to get any grief.
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BertB
post Fri, 19 Aug 2022 - 08:03
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No, ignoring it is pretty bad advice and would have most likely resulted in your friend getting said grief.

If we could all name a driver who lives abroad with a foreign licence and get off scot free if they don't reply, we would. We have had several instances on here where people have posted that they named a foreign relative/friend who didn't reply and they were being asked for proof they were in the country at the time along with insurance status.

The suspicion being that it is considered a clever ruse to get away with speeding advised by the man in the pub who allegedly did it once (or in this case, man on a forum).

I take it if you try and sign up using your licence details, it just rejects your application?
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cp8759
post Fri, 19 Aug 2022 - 20:08
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QUOTE (BertB @ Fri, 19 Aug 2022 - 09:03) *
No, ignoring it is pretty bad advice and would have most likely resulted in your friend getting said grief.

I don't see why, if the OP was properly licenced and insured (which he claims to be) the police have no comeback against the registered keeper.


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If you would like assistance with a penalty charge notice, please post a thread on https://www.ftla.uk/index.php
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BertB
post Sat, 20 Aug 2022 - 18:33
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QUOTE (cp8759 @ Fri, 19 Aug 2022 - 21:08) *
QUOTE (BertB @ Fri, 19 Aug 2022 - 09:03) *
No, ignoring it is pretty bad advice and would have most likely resulted in your friend getting said grief.

I don't see why, if the OP was properly licenced and insured (which he claims to be) the police have no comeback against the registered keeper.


The OP was being advised he should have ignored the S.172 request.
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matttye
post Mon, 22 Aug 2022 - 21:57
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Is it likely you’ll be in the UK again in the next 3 years? If so it would probably be better to do a course.

If you don’t do the course, you’ll get penalty points which will inevitably increase your insurance premium for the next 3 years.

Most courses can be done online. I don’t know whether they would allow you to take it when you’re out of the jurisdiction, but if you can it would be the best way to resolve it.

If you’re not planning to come back for a number of years or indefinitely, then the points are unlikely to have much of an impact on you so you might opt to take them instead.
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