Another speed camera rant, anyone had a Reminder Notice recently?

[jaykay]

Here's how a speed camera ticket is supposed to work.

1 Police send Infringement Notice.

2 If you don't do anything and the Police want to continue the proceedings they have to send a Reminder Notice with substantially the same particulars as the original notice.

3 If you don't either pay or request a hearing within 28 days the Reminder notice is lodged with the court as an unpaid fine. (The fine is for not paying the infringement fee, not for the original offence!).

A friend of mine had an Infringement Notice early February - to the address where the car is registered. Just about the time the Reminder Notice was due to sent a High Court judge pointed out that ALL the Police Reminder Notices were wrongly worded - so I assumed there would be a delay whilst it was sorted.

Wrong - a Notice of Fine turned up recently (remembering this can only follow from an unpaid Reminder Notice), to a totally different address - his mothers - which he hasn't used for ten years.

What's happened? Who has decided first of all not to send a Reminder Notice, and then to lodge it with the court as an unpaid fine with a different address. Someone is either totally incompetent or dishonest - and if the Police can get something as trivial as this completely wrong how can they be trusted with anything important?

In order to sort all this out it will be necessary to fill in Forms at the court, which takes time and effort - the only consolation is that done the right way the original fine won't need paying.

Whic brings me on to my second point - does anyone have a recent Reminder Notice? I want to see what changes the Police have made so it complies with the law. On the reverse will be "notes to defendant" - anyone tell me how the paragraph concerning how you request a hearing is worded?

[firefighter]

Yep, well they shouldn't be trusted to help you when in need, since theyr'e so incompetent......perhaps if you ever need police assistance and you dont trust them dont call them, maybe you should be pissed at the couts and civilian administrators...... who deal with that shit,dont just blame the police,law enforcers not writers, perhaps they are busier with their limited resources and the speeding ticket which was deserved was given a bit of a back seat in the big scheme of things......just my 2cents

dont be so quick to bad mouth the police, there's enough of that around.....

[McJim]

and if the Police can get something as trivial as this completely wrong how can they be trusted with anything important?

I'm quite comfortable with the Police concentrating on the important and fucking up the trivial. Assuming that a simple and fairly unimportant facet is incorrect is due to incompetence throughout an organisation is an argument commonly utilised by the intellectually impaired.

[firefighter]

I'm quite comfortable with the Police concentrating on the important and fucking up the trivial. Assuming that a simple and fairly unimportant facet is incorrect is due to incompetence throughout an organisation is an argument commonly utilised by the intellectually impaired.

exactly, and it's all civilians and the courts that handle the speeding tickets not the police anyway!

[Number One]

does anyone have a recent Reminder Notice? I want to see what changes the Police have made so it complies with the law. On the reverse will be "notes to defendant" - anyone tell me how the paragraph concerning how you request a hearing is worded?

quote
Further Action
2: If you wish to raise any matter relating to the circumstances of the alleged offence, you should do so by writing to the informatnt at the address shown on the front page of this notice within 28 days after service of this notice.
3:If you wish to deny liability in respect of the alleged offence, you must, within 28 days after the service of this notice, write to the informant at the address shown on the front page of this notice requesting a hearing in respect of the offence. The information will then, if it decides to commence court proceedings in respect oft he offence, serve you with a notice of hearing setting out the place and time at which the matter will be heard by the Court.

NOTE: If the Court finds you guilty of the offence, costs will be imposed in addition to any penalty.

end quote

[jaykay]

This was the wording on the back of Reminder Notices prior to early March - I understood it had been changed.

This wording says you have to write within 28 days (of service), the law says the police have to receive it within 28 days.

I have a number of letters from the Police telling people their request for a hearing was received too late, despite them writing and posting them within 28 days exactly as specified on the paperwork.

If anyone has a Reminder Notice with a due date after 10th April, I am still interested to know if the wording is the same as the previous post, or if it has been changed as a High Court judge strongly suggested in early March.

[Kickaha]

If anyone has a Reminder Notice with a due date after 10th April, I am still interested to know if the wording is the same as the previous post, or if it has been changed as a High Court judge strongly suggested in early March.

Yes It has been changed

[Number One]

If anyone has a Reminder Notice with a due date after 10th April, I am still interested to know if the wording is the same as the previous post, or if it has been changed as a High Court judge strongly suggested in early March.

If it's changed they've cut it fine then....my one is due to be paid on the 4 April.....

[jaykay]

What has the wording been changed to?

[Soul.Trader]

Does it really matter? Just pay the fine and be done with it.

[Bren]

Ya know a sure fire way to avoid this bullshit? DONT SPEED....Guaranteed to Work...It has for me!

[Swoop]

What has the wording been changed to?

Does it matter? Whatever the wording on the document that you have been sent is enough. If you want to question the "new" wording, you had better get down to the court and have a chat with the registrar or someone else in a position to do something about it.

[ynot slow]

Have to laugh at times,I had a P.O.Box after I seperated,stopped me recieving shit from the ex,only thing was when you got speed camera or parking tickets they went to your residential address,no problem with that except I was living in a rural delivery area,and the ticket etc never arrived.Found out one time when I saw the meter maid(and a hot one too)give my car a ticket,didn't worry about it at the time as I had to finish what I was doing.Went back to my car and the ticket was gone,waited a couple of weeks and rang the council,they said yep it is due within the next month,I said when did you send it,they said 3 weeks ago to ....RdRD... etc,I said why not post it to my P O Box,she said it is sent to a physical address,to which I said fine but noone is home from 7.30 till 5.30.Moral learnt was check if in doubt.

Similar thing happened with my mum and her husband,they found out the same way when they were picked up in a routine checkpoint,was told you have outstanding fines,they checked it out and had one due the next day.

[Patrick]

Here's how a speed camera ticket is supposed to work.

Two steps....

1. You speed, you get ticket.
2. You pay fine.

Or, put it thorugh the complicator....

- deny you were, even if you were...?
- find a loop hole from some wording on the back, which has absolutely nothing to do witht he fact you were speeding anyway...?
- defend it in court, because you were actually speeding...?
- go on KB and whinge about it...?

Hmmm....

Gotta go now to pay the 2 I got the other week... A Camera van outside a school at 8.10am 56kmph (going to the shop for bread for kids lunches) and 8.16am 58kmph (going home again with the bread). Schools aren't even open then, but... oh well...

[jaykay]

As with any ticket you have to receive a Reminder Notice. The Police or Council will try and say that sending one in the post is sufficient - it isn't. In law you MUST be served with one.

If you end up with a Notice of Fine without a Reminder Notice you should go and fill in a Form 57 at the court. This puts the fine on hold and it cannot be enforced until you receive a response, usually with another Reminder Notice being sent, which gives another 28 days to pay. At the very least this avoids the court costs added on.

Even better is to delay filling in a Form 57 until five months from the date of the alleged offence. The due date of another Reminder Notice will then be over six months from the date of the alleged offence.

Why is this relevant? Because an unpaid Reminder Notice HAS to be filed in a court within six months of the date of the alleged offence to be legal - and a Notice of Hearing (if you request one) also HAS to be dated within six months.

I've been trying to get an out of date Reminder Notice into court for the past two or three years, either the Police end up dropping the case or the court is very slow in chasing up unpaid fines. Unless anyone knows any different a friend of mine holds the record at present - court hasn't chased him for well over a year. When/if they ever do........he will fill in a Form 57 as his request for a hearing was routinely ignored - get another Reminder Notice...and we will chalk up another victory.