I neglected to send my driving licence into the DVLA after a traffic offence,

I HAD paid the fine, £200,

it was a genuine oversight due to personal, distressing distractions during that period.

I was NOT reminded to send my licence in by the issuing authority

I was refunded the fine paid, which I was not aware of as the nature of my business means funds of several hundreds of £s enter and leave my account at very regular intervals

I was contacted by the court to explain why I had not done this,

I listed the reasons why, but have now been served a notice to appear in court....

.is this an additional punishment or can I expect them to single me out for a hefty fine, disqualification or additional points to my licence.

This is very distressing and I welcome any input please

You need to check that your licence has not been automatically revoked.

The magistrates will decide. I'm not sure of the guidelines.

Thanks for the reply .....which has I am sorry to say thrown me into more of a panic.

Could this be the case that although I am below the maximum points for exclusion, that the DVLA have automatically revoked my licence, even though they have NOT contacted me at ANY point during this ordeal, both following the initial traffic offence and the the subsequent neglect on my part to send them the licence ? If this IS the case then I am in fact NOW driving illegally .........

yes its quite possible.

can you check online at the DVLA?

They can revoke your licence for not sending it in to them even tho its an antiquated sstem. They used to endorse your licence by printing on the old paper one or the counterpart. The counterpart is no longer issued or used but the legislation has not changed. I think its in place until they put a bio chip on your licence and your info will be on there too

Correct me if I am wrong - we are a little light on details - but from the £200 penalty, were you caught using a mobile phone? If this was a fixed penalty notice issued by the police, the paperwork would inform you that the notice was a means of avoiding prosecution and the various conditions that applied (Conditional offer). These include the time scale for submitting your licence to DVLA for the attachment of the points.

If this is not complied with, the FPN is withdrawn and any payment is returned. It is now in the hands of the court. Even if you had noticed the return of the money it would have been too late to halt the process. Reminders are not issued, the driver has to take responsibility for their actions.

Whilst personal problems can be cited in mitigation for not complying with the requirements of the FPN, the best that you can hope for is a fine on the lower end of the scale.

Do not put forward the lack of knowledge that the penalty had been returned due to the business transactions, your personal finances should be seperate from trading finances. It could appear that you were paying a penalty with company money which is a no-no. (HMRC are never happy with a blurring of finances, particularly by the self-employed for instance)

You might want to go to https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence and check your current licence status . A revocation becomes a possibility if a court has ordered the endorsement and the licence was not submitted.

To accept the offer of a fixed penalty, the driving licence needs to be sent (and the payment) to the authority offering the fixed penalty, not the DVLA.

Many thanks for this 'Gick'

, I had hoped the court would have treated me more lightly as clearly I accepted the charge, then paid the fine...

...I listed the personal reasons for my absence of mind to send the licence to the DVLA and had hoped for less than being dragged across the country from Gloucester to London, to the court hearing, so was pretty shocked when I received the letter

, I had hoped they would have been more leanient, made offer me to submit my licence immediately for the points to be added, been allowed to repay the fine, and probably received an additional fine for wasting the court's time

The sheer emotional distress this has caused is truly horrible, and seems to have taken over my life in the last SEVEN months.

I am hoping to talk to the C.A.B. on before the case to see if there is route by which I can make this plea, but I somehow fear, they are determined to follow this course of action

.Any other help you can offer would be most appreciated

, I fear for my job, income and property.....and simply for picking up my phone in stationary traffic to check it was indeed OFF prior to negotiating the nightmare of making my way through London, and avoid any distractions what so ever from within the carhttps://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?462118-Have-you-received-a-Parking-Ticket.

The officer himself admitted that he could see I wasnt using for calls but had suspected I was using it as a Sat Nav, at which point I pointed out the actual Sat Nav that I was using.

There is no reason for your licence to have been revoked.

You simply failed to comply with the terms of the Fixed Penalty offer and the matter will now be dealt with by the court.

There is nothing you can do about that now.

What you can do is ask the court to deal with the matter by fining you the fixed penalty equivalent.

They have the discretion to do this where there are reasons unconnected with the offence that the fixed penalty offer could not be taken up. It's usually used if, say, a driver's licence is not immediately to hand because (for example) it is currently being replaced.

It's doubtful they will see it your way (since it was entirely your fault) but you can ask.

Providing the court is not considering disqualification (and there's no reason they should be) you can deal with this matter by post

. It will almost certainly be dealt with under the "Single Justice" process anyway and you cannot attend that hearing. (You have to ask to have it transferred to the normal Magistrates' Court if you want to attend).

Thanks for that

And the reason that sight of your licence is required is nothing to do with needing to "endorse" it. It is simply to confirm that you are indeed the person nominated as the driver and that you hold a licence in that name. It's simply a double check that nothing dodgy is going on.

Thanks 'Man in the Middle' it is inded going to be heard at a magistrates court the other side of the country from me, and I AM required to attending .....just petrified they fine me money I just dont have or ban me ......

They revoke your licence if you fail to send it to them when they request it, It happened to me, No biggy

I rang them and they sent me a B1 form, Though i didn't wait for it and got one from the post office, I filled it in and sent it to them with my licence, I had it back 6 days later no longer revoked

I even rang them and they helped me with parts of the form i wasn't sure about

Thanks Colin ...... Its not actually be revoked.....I checked the DVLA site .....I have been summoned to court for not submitting it... do you think I could do that and send it to the DVLA and just get the points put on ? ....it would save all this distress.....

....cant find the B1 form on the DVLA website ......

It will be nothing to do with the DVLA or revoking your licence, as in post 12, the licence needed to be sent to the authority dealing with the offence. As it was not sent, the money was refunded and the matter forwarded to be dealt with at court.

If you have checked and its not revoked then you dont need a form to fill in. Just turn up to court on the date, plead your case.

Personally I would plead guilty but with mitigated circumstances.

Ie you did pay but forgot to send license and had payment returned.

Thanks Colin ...... Its not actually be revoked.....I checked the DVLA site .....I have been summoned to court for not submitting it... do you think I could do that and send it to the DVLA and just get the points put on ? ....it would save all this distress.....

This has been answered already.

It should have gone to the court, not DVLA, as part of the FPN offer.

The FPN offer has been withdrawn, and your payment refunded.

You have been served a summons, notifying you of the court case.

Re-asking the question a slightly different way isn’t going to yield a different answer.

This has been answered already.

It should have gone to the court, not DVLA, as part of the FPN offer.

To the office that issued the fixed penalty offer, not a court.

....cant find the B1 form on the DVLA website ......

Sorry was a typo, Its a D1 form

They don't add point to your licence anymore as such

That's all done online since they got rid of the paper part of the licence

Why are they asking you to attend? What speed were you doing (in what limit). Do you have any points on your licence? Is the document you have asking you to attend court a Single Justice Procedure Notice, a Postal Requisition or a summons?

Your licence will only be revoked if you fail to submit it following a conviction in court. If you fail to do so when accepting a Fixed Penalty Offer all that happens, as you have discovered, is that the matter is refferred to court and your penalty is refunded.

Just realised it is a mobile phone offence, not speeding, so forget part one of the above. Nonetheless these matters almost always give the defendant the option of dealing with the matter by post so there must be a reason why they have asked you to attend. What's the exact wording?