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Free penalty points from DVLA!


MarkW
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I've just changed car insurance companies, during the course of which I checked my licence on the DVLA website to confirm that it was clean. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that it showed three penalty points! It's bloody well news to me!


The alleged offence was committed in November last year. I received no NIP or other communication about this, and consequently they will have received nothing back from me to confirm or deny that I was the driver, which is an offence in its own right that would have got me far more than the three points they say I have. My bank and credit card records also show two things: firstly, that I paid no fine (the minimum is £100, so again, how the hell am I supposed to have got away with that?) and secondly, that on the date of the 'offence' I was 230 miles away, shopping in York and taking the family out for dinner.


Has anyone else had this sort of thing happen? Obviously I'm going to challenge it, but short of waving my bank statements under their nose and asking them to provide the evidence of the offence I'm not sure what more I can do.

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Never heard of a story like this before, how exciting!

It’s always nice to get an unexpected gift. Such a special thing to happen.


Will there have been any consequences of this? Have you renewed any car or bike insurance policies since this happy nonevent took place?


Ah, the pain, the anguish, the mental torture as you consider the ramifications.


I feel a sternly worded email is in order and you are rather good at them.👍

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It’s too late for them to prosecute you now I think. I would be interested to hear what happens with this.

 

The points are applied at the end of the process. and as far as we can tell there was no 'process' at all. if it was any normal traffic misdemeanour then he would have been offered a choice. fine or an all day lecture. and points then applied or not depending on which course (ahem) he took.

Looks more like a glitch in the system.

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It’s too late for them to prosecute you now I think. I would be interested to hear what happens with this.

 

The points are applied at the end of the process. and as far as we can tell there was no 'process' at all. if it was any normal traffic misdemeanour then he would have been offered a choice. fine or an all day lecture. and points then applied or not depending on which course (ahem) he took.

Looks more like a glitch in the system.

 

Yes, sorry I should have put more words. I was thinking about the possibility they might seek to prosecute for the offence once the mess up of no process is cleared up.

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Having had a trawl through the DVLA website I found the following advice:


Incorrect endorsement details on your licence

- Contact the court that convicted if your endorsement details are shown incorrectly on your driving licence.


I have no idea which court 'convicted' me, or why they were so lenient on someone who they must have assumed had ignored every bit of official correspondence relating to this and not paid their fine(s), but I have emailed the Fixed Penalty Office concerned to see if they can shed any light. My hopes weren't boosted much by the average customer review rating of 1.9 out of five, or the catalogue of complaints, most of which concerned their administrative incompetence.


We shall see what happens...


I've never heard of anything like this happening before either. The closest was a guy I worked with some years ago who woke up to find the police battering his door down after his car had been used in a ram-raid the night before. They realised almost immediately that they had the wrong guy when his car (which was supposedly driven through the front of a shop a few hours earlier) was in immaculate condition on his drive, and the fact that he had spent the previous evening leading a bible study group for his local church. His plate had been cloned, clearly by someone who could hardly have picked a less convincing candidate for a smash-and-grab job! :lol:

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Go and spend the points in a supermarket before they ask for them back :P


The best and faster way to contact DVLA is via twitter. When I tried to contact them about my wee trailer the only way I got an answer was on twitter.

Send a twit with @dvla as first word so it becomes a private message. Unless you want it to go public then you start with anything else ;) :thumb:

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Is your V5C for all vehicles definitely the correct address? And your licence?


And yes, you're correct, a S172 charge for failing to name a driver when requested carries more points and would also make getting insurance tres expensive.


I thought the driving licence check at https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence displayed the offence code and court that issued the points?

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Just a couple of thoughts which I am sure you have covered but just hoping to help.

How long has this incorrect information been out there? Have I inadvertantly perjured/ mis repesentented myself to official bodies due to DVLA`s incompetence?

Should the information have been correct and I witheld it how much would I have been liable for? (This would be starting point for compensation lol).

I know they will say they cant be held responsible for administrative errors But I damn well think they should be !!!!

Good luck and I look forward to your email as I know how pithy and incisive you can be !

Cheers

Ian

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I have just received the following email reply from the fixed penalty office in Southend-on-Sea:


"It appears Avon and Somerset received a response to these letters confirming you were the driver at the time of the offence. If you wish to see further evidence of this I would advise you to contact Avon and Somerset as their office holds these records.


The payment of this fine was made online on 20 November 2019 in full. A reminder letter was then sent to yourself advising the licence needed to be submitted for processing. Your driving licence was received on 27 January 2020, but the notice had already been processed and closed.


Please be advised the offence location from 5 November 2019 is M5 J18 TO J19, BRISTOL, not Southend On Sea. The South Regional Fixed Penalty office is based in Southend and this is why it shows on the offence information on the licence record."


This ought to be a pretty easy one to sort out: if the offence was committed on 5th November last year (rather than 9th as shown on the DVLA site) then I wasn't even in the country: I had flown from Leeds Bradford Airport to Holland the previous evening, stayed with colleagues in a hotel, and spent the entirety of the following day in a meeting with Dutch government officials.


I have emailed Avon and Somerset Police, so we'll see what happens next.

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Guest Richzx6r

I have just received the following email reply from the fixed penalty office in Southend-on-Sea:


"It appears Avon and Somerset received a response to these letters confirming you were the driver at the time of the offence. If you wish to see further evidence of this I would advise you to contact Avon and Somerset as their office holds these records.


The payment of this fine was made online on 20 November 2019 in full. A reminder letter was then sent to yourself advising the licence needed to be submitted for processing. Your driving licence was received on 27 January 2020, but the notice had already been processed and closed.


Please be advised the offence location from 5 November 2019 is M5 J18 TO J19, BRISTOL, not Southend On Sea. The South Regional Fixed Penalty office is based in Southend and this is why it shows on the offence information on the licence record."


This ought to be a pretty easy one to sort out: if the offence was committed on 5th November last year (rather than 9th as shown on the DVLA site) then I wasn't even in the country: I had flown from Leeds Bradford Airport to Holland the previous evening, stayed with colleagues in a hotel, and spent the entirety of the following day in a meeting with Dutch government officials.


I have emailed Avon and Somerset Police, so we'll see what happens next.

 

Sounds about right them changing details of the alleged offence to see if they can get something that suits.


Good luck with the thieving twats I hope it gets sorted

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Guest Swagman

I have just received the following email reply from the fixed penalty office in Southend-on-Sea:


"It appears Avon and Somerset received a response to these letters confirming you were the driver at the time of the offence. If you wish to see further evidence of this I would advise you to contact Avon and Somerset as their office holds these records.


The payment of this fine was made online on 20 November 2019 in full. A reminder letter was then sent to yourself advising the licence needed to be submitted for processing. Your driving licence was received on 27 January 2020, but the notice had already been processed and closed.


Please be advised the offence location from 5 November 2019 is M5 J18 TO J19, BRISTOL, not Southend On Sea. The South Regional Fixed Penalty office is based in Southend and this is why it shows on the offence information on the licence record."


This ought to be a pretty easy one to sort out: if the offence was committed on 5th November last year (rather than 9th as shown on the DVLA site) then I wasn't even in the country: I had flown from Leeds Bradford Airport to Holland the previous evening, stayed with colleagues in a hotel, and spent the entirety of the following day in a meeting with Dutch government officials.


I have emailed Avon and Somerset Police, so we'll see what happens next.

 

Now bearing in mind according to your profile you don’t live neither here nor there how the hell could they have found you. :D :D :D

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Now bearing in mind according to your profile you don’t live neither here nor there how the hell could they have found you. :D :D :D

 

:D


I once got stopped for a minor speeding infraction many years ago, and tried to get out of it by referring to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (who hasn't?):


"Are you absolutely sure you know which direction I was travelling in, officer?"


"Yes sir, quite sure."


"Then it is impossible to know how fast I was going. You know, Fourier transformation of canonically conjugate variables or whatever... or am I thinking of DeBroglie's theory of wave particle duality?... anyway, whatever it is it's impossible to say I was speeding because of the standard deviation of my direction being more than half of the Planck constant or something. I don't really understand it - I'm a biologist - but it's all been gone into very thoroughly by some top physics boffins."


"Step out of the car please sir..."


:?

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Now bearing in mind according to your profile you don’t live neither here nor there how the hell could they have found you. :D :D :D

 

:D


I once got stopped for a minor speeding infraction many years ago, and tried to get out of it by referring to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (who hasn't?):


"Are you absolutely sure you know which direction I was travelling in, officer?"


"Yes sir, quite sure."


"Then it is impossible to know how fast I was going. You know, Fourier transformation of canonically conjugate variables or whatever... or am I thinking of DeBroglie's theory of wave particle duality?... anyway, whatever it is it's impossible to say I was speeding because of the standard deviation of my direction being more than half of the Planck constant or something. I don't really understand it - I'm a biologist - but it's all been gone into very thoroughly by some top physics boffins."


"Step out of the car please sir..."


:?

 

Followed by, "And blow into this please sir."

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Thank you for calling Avon and Somerset Police. To report someone for not wearing a face mask in public, please press 1. To report someone for holding the wrong views about gender neutral lavatories, please press 2. For anything else that allows us to impose a fine without having to do any real police work or risk any sort of physical danger, please press 3. For all other enquiries, please hang up.

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Having had no response whatsoever from DVLA I gave our solicitor a call this afternoon to see if she had any bright ideas for chivvying them along. She said she could look into it for her standard fee of £230 an hour, but that it might be too late because I should have contested the points when they sent me the NIP back in November.


Imagine that: you can have shit for brains and still make £230 an hour.

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Having had no response whatsoever from DVLA I gave our solicitor a call this afternoon to see if she had any bright ideas for chivvying them along. She said she could look into it for her standard fee of £230 an hour, but that it might be too late because I should have contested the points when they sent me the NIP back in November.


Imagine that: you can have shit for brains and still make £230 an hour.

I'll ignore what you say and tell you it was your fault for £150 an hour 👍

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Having had no response whatsoever from DVLA I gave our solicitor a call this afternoon to see if she had any bright ideas for chivvying them along. She said she could look into it for her standard fee of £230 an hour, but that it might be too late because I should have contested the points when they sent me the NIP back in November.


Imagine that: you can have shit for brains and still make £230 an hour.

I'll ignore what you say and tell you it was your fault for £150 an hour 👍

 

I'll do it for £1.50 an hour. And a bottle of Laphroaig.


Actually, forgot the £1.50.

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Having had no response whatsoever from DVLA I gave our solicitor a call this afternoon to see if she had any bright ideas for chivvying them along. She said she could look into it for her standard fee of £230 an hour, but that it might be too late because I should have contested the points when they sent me the NIP back in November.


Imagine that: you can have shit for brains and still make £230 an hour.

The only surprise for that is that you found it surprising.

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I think I'm being sent on a wild goose chase here...


When I contacted the Fixed Penalty Office in Southend they suggested I contact Avon and Somerset Police, who in turn advised me to contact their Camera Team. I don't think either is relevant here.


When the Camera Team and/or the local police force caught the speeding driver they clearly issued the correct details to the local FPO in order for the FPO to have received the completed NIP, the payment of the fine and the licence from the guilty party. Everything pre-FPO can therefore be excluded, and the mistake can only have been made either by Southend FPO or the DVLA.


So, the issue now is what happens once a licence is sent to the FPO. If they are responsible for endorsing it and then updating the DVLA system then the mistake can only have been made by Southend FPO. But if DVLA has to update their system themselves then they could either have accurately entered incorrect information from the FPO, or inaccurately entered the correct information from the FPO.


Does anyone know exactly how it works? I'm hoping it is the FPO that does all the work, because so far they are the only ones responding to my emails or phone calls...


:(

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