QUOTE (sgtdixie @ Tue, 30 Oct 2012 - 08:23)
Did you surrender your licence when you produced?
If you did you have accepted the fixed penalty and if you do not pay the fine it will be registered at the courts as an unpaid fine.
If you did not surrender you have elected to go to court. The Police prepare a summons file and the original paperwork becomes irrelevant albeit the Police copy normally goes in the unused material bundle.
So the 'court copy' can disappear and you will still get a summons.
I did surrender my licence, but the person on the desk said I can still apply to go to court by filling in and submitting part 5 (request court hearing) within the 28 days. He also said I can just not pay the fine and would recieve a summons all the same.
The opinion of the traffic officer in the station was that if I applied for a court hearing and they didn't have part 2, it would be requested from the officer that issued the FPN. If he was unable to provide that part, they would leave it to him to resolve - obviously not something that can be done if it doesn't exist.
Have I been fed bum information?
QUOTE (andy_foster @ Tue, 30 Oct 2012 - 08:21)
If you request a court hearing, the FPN ceases to bar the police from prosecuting within whatever is left of the suspended enforcement period (21 days or such longer time as may be specified on the notice). This puts the ball back into the police's court (pun not intended) and it is open to them to initiate a prosecution in the same way that it would have been if the FPN had not been issued. The FPN essentially becomes irrelevant.
The 'court copy' will not be something that is required for you to be prosecuted in court. It will almost certainly be the copy that is sent with your licence to the court to be endorsed if you pay the fixed penalty.
And no, we don't know whether or not accepting the fixed penalty when you have the 'court copy' will scupper the process. It is possible that it would do if they do not have the sense to send a copy of the FPN with the licence, or such other information that would allow the court to endorse it. If an endorseable FPN has been lawfully issued, and the penalty paid in accordance with Part III of the RTOA 1988, you cannot lawfully be prosecuted for the alleged offence, even if they balls up the process.
So if I understand what you're saying, I should pay the fine and see what happens re endorsement?
If they court were unable to endorse as they don't have the FPN, I don't suppose the fine is refunded? My understanding is there is no acceptable way this part of an FPN can be recreated and accepted, so surely that puts me in a strong position as it is an integral part of 'the process'.
It has put me in a very awkward position, because I feel I have been charged incorrectly anyway, I certainly wasn't 'not in control of the vehicle', quite the opposite infact, and I'd argue that the only valid charge would be driving without due consideration of others, and even only then if consideration of others extends to people in bed in the surrounding area, at which point it is surely a social issue rather than a traffic offence.