Thread: driving in europe on a fixed penatly notice? any ideas?

i got a fixed penalty notice the other day so im going to have to hand my driving licence in for the points putting on but i am going over the the Nurburgring (Germany) in a few weeks time. now i know in the UK you driving using the fixed penalty notice whilst they have your licence but will the German authorities accept it as a licence? ive phone everyone i can think of and no one knows! ive phoned DVLA, RAC Legal, the German Embassy.... no answer to the question anywhere! anybody?

Court or Fixed Penalty Office.

Explain that you need your licence and why (it may be helpful to add that you need to hire a car in Germany). It is not necessary for them to retain your licence, they can hand write the detail on the paper part if necessary - it will probably need a personal visit.

to clarify though jlocspoon, are you hoping to drive in Germany on the "fixed penalty notice" while your licence is away, but still fully expecting it to be revoked under the New Drivers Act, or are you a bit more hopeful of keeping it now? Personally, from the other thread where we discussed this, I don't see any way around you getting a revocation of your license.

If you still expect it to be revoked, patdavies approach won't work coz the quicker they send it back to you, the quicker you find out yur a learner again!

well i started this new thread just to see if anyone knew if i could drive on the fixed penalty notice in Germany. im going to pay the fine and accept the points as late as possible and prey the DVLA are busy so take a while. i've rung the German Embassy again and they're finding out and letting me know. So fingers crossed and i'll let you guy know when i do, just for future referance

Originally Posted by jlocspoon

im going to pay the fine and accept the points as late as possible and prey the DVLA are busy so take a while.

They don't take a while coz they are busy, they usually take a while coz they have a nasty habit of loosing peoples stuff!!

well fingers crossed they loose mine then!

Originally Posted by crem

If you still expect it to be revoked, patdavies approach won't work coz the quicker they send it back to you, the quicker you find out yur a learner again!

It wasn't clear from the original question that revocation may be involved.

If the licence is to be revoked under the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act then the licence will not be returned to you at all. The Act requires that it be retained and sent to the Secretary of State (ie DVLA).

It remains valid however until the revocation notice arrives from DVLA giving a date of revocation.

This is really terrible advice, but I once didn't pay or send my licence off for a speeding ticket (40 in a 30) for 6-7 months afterwards and didn't incur any extra costs. I sent the letter back admitting it was me and then totally forgot to pay the thing (I was at Uni, parents in southern hemisphere for 6 months, all post going home!).

After about 9 months they increased it to £255 and I had to go to magistrates and explain that I hadn't been getting post, they were very nice and reduced it back to the original cost, still if I'd paid it after 6 months it would have been fine!