£100 refund from hmcourts Options

[PopsBD]

Hi. I’m new here and was advised by a friend to join this forum as he found it very helpful and I’m in desperate need for advice.

I have recently been refunded £100 that I paid for a speeding fine that was in Oct 2019 but I paid it in April 2020 due to the fine previously being sent to my old address. I paid on the automated system, got my payment reference number and posted my license to the address as was instructed in the letter in the 28 days that was stated. I recently got told by someone that I should’ve sent it by recorded delivery instead of 1st class post as it sometimes gets lost in transit, hence, leading to this situation.

I have been worried sick as I have searched on the internet and found out that now I could get a court summons and pay up to £1000 and get 6 points on my license. I have never defaulted on any payments in 15 years, always paid any fines I’ve had in the past and have a clean credit history. This has been making me anxious and I’m losing sleep over this as I plan to buy my first home at the end of the year and this court summons may ruin my life. I have never been to court and I’m going crazy not knowing what to do or how to respond to this.

Could any of you who have had this in the past please help me and advise me on what happens next? What do I do? Who do I need to contact and will this have an impact on my credit file or be logged as a CCj? I have no idea about these things as this has never happened to me before. Please Help!!!

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[andy_foster]

Sorry mate, the crystal ball appears to be on the blink again.

[TMC Towcester]

when were you supposed to pay it? How was the FINE sent to the wrong address? Presumably last year you got a NIP and replied?I

Need more information!

[The Rookie]

Just to cover the outcome.

You won’t get a CCJ, speeding is a criminal matter, CCJs are for civil matters.

The punishments in court for speeding is UP TO 6 points and a £1000 fine (£2500 for a motorway), if you were offered a fixed penalty then that will never be the outcome, in addition there is specific guidance for cases where a fixed penalty would normally result for the sentence to be in line with the fixed penalty.

But some facts would be useful, such as a timeline of events. Date of speeding event, when you got the NIP and so on.

[Jlc]

I have recently been refunded £100 that I paid for a speeding fine that was in Oct 2019 but I paid it in April 2020 due to the fine previously being sent to my old address. I paid on the automated system, got my payment reference number and posted my license to the address as was instructed in the letter in the 28 days that was stated. I recently got told by someone that I should’ve sent it by recorded delivery instead of 1st class post as it sometimes gets lost in transit, hence, leading to this situation.

As noted above, we need more detail - if the speeding issue was in October then paying it in April will almost certainly be too late. But we need to know exactly what you did and when. Which Police Force for starters as the driver has to be nominated before paying any fine etc. (Not Avon & Somerset by any chance?)

It's possible they may pursue a separate charge for failing to furnish driver details - but we need more details...

I have been worried sick as I have searched on the internet and found out that now I could get a court summons and pay up to £1000 and get 6 points on my license. I have never defaulted on any payments in 15 years, always paid any fines I’ve had in the past and have a clean credit history. This has been making me anxious and I’m losing sleep over this as I plan to buy my first home at the end of the year and this court summons may ruin my life. I have never been to court and I’m going crazy not knowing what to do or how to respond to this.

No need to worry - this won't ruin your life. It should be relatively simple to resolve but may require a visit to court depending on the circumstances. There are also specific guidance for fixed penalty equivalent sentencing that may apply to reduce the financial impact.

Could any of you who have had this in the past please help me and advise me on what happens next? What do I do? Who do I need to contact and will this have an impact on my credit file or be logged as a CCj? I have no idea about these things as this has never happened to me before. Please Help!!!

If the £100 has been refunded it means the matter will progress to court. But it's all guess work now until you provide more details.

This post has been edited by Jlc: Thu, 28 May 2020 - 07:49

[The Slithy Tove]

posted my license to the address as was instructed in the letter in the 28 days that was stated. I recently got told by someone that I should’ve sent it by recorded delivery instead of 1st class post as it sometimes gets lost in transit, hence, leading to this situation.

That's not true regarding recorded/signed for.

Has the licence been retuned to you? That would be an indication whether it got lost in the post or not.

[PopsBD]

Hi. Sorry for not being more specific.

Basically I had moved address and forgot to change it on my license. The date of offence was in Oct 2019 and I got the NIP in March 2020 when the new address was updated. i accepted I was the driver at the time. I was offered a conditional offer for fixed penalty, to be paid within 28 days from 10/03/2020. I paid that and sent my license by 1st class post. However, I never received a new license and I completely forgot about it until I received the refund amd realised I didn’t have my license.

The fine was from West Yorkshire Police and the offence was in Leeds (speeding- exceed 30mph on restricted road)

[BaggieBoy]

The address being incorrect on your licence has no relevance here, it's the address on the V5C document for the vehicle that is used when serving a NIP.

[Jlc]

The date of offence was in Oct 2019 and I got the NIP in March 2020 when the new address was updated. i accepted I was the driver at the time. I was offered a conditional offer for fixed penalty, to be paid within 28 days from 10/03/2020. I paid that and sent my license by 1st class post. However, I never received a new license and I completely forgot about it until I received the refund amd realised I didn’t have my license.

So to be clear, they let you nominate the driver ~5 months after the offence and issued a conditional offer of fixed penalty?

What was the date of the offence - it's critical here. (As they have to commence proceedings within 6 months from the offence)

[NewJudge]

What you could do is have a look at the date on the court paperwork when it arrives. You had 28 days from 10th March to accept the fixed penalty (so until 7th April). They could not begin court proceedings until then. You don't say the date of the offence other than October. Let's say the 15th for example. They only have between 7th and 15th April to begin proceedings. Later than that and the offence "times out" (they only have six months from the date of the offence to begin court action). What date in October was the offence? I take it you have received no court paperwork yet?

EDIT: Thinking a bit more, the latest you could have committed the offence was 31st October so they only had until 30th April to commence proceedings. It is now almost the end of May and it would be unusual for notification of court proceedings to take a month to reach you (the notice to you and the notification to the court are - or should be - produced at the same time).

This post has been edited by NewJudge: Fri, 29 May 2020 - 07:26

[andy_foster]

...it would be unusual for notification of court proceedings to take a month to reach you (the notice to you and the notification to the court are - or should be - produced at the same time).

Produced != sent

In the good old days of raising a summons, the SCP would typically sit on the summons for 2-3 weeks whilst collating the evidence bundle before sending to the accused (except Humberside who would invariably apparently lay the information on the last permissible day (and definitely not backdated, honest guv) and then serve the summons 2-3 months later.