Ticket for allegedly not wearing a seat belt

[AnnC]

Apologies if this has been asked before. My husband was filling up with petrol one morning around 1 a.m. in the morning on his way back from work when a police car pulled into the petrol station. The officer got out and went over to my husband and asked him had he been wearing a seat belt prior to going to the petrol station. He said he had but the police officer said that he had observed him not doing so and gave him a ticket - showing the time of 0.55 a.m. My husband didn't even observe the police car anywhere.

 

We have now received through the post a summons for not wearing a seat belt. However, the timing on the summons says he was observed at 12 midnight which is at odds with the time shown on the actual ticket. We are struggling to see how we can defend this. We can't afford a solicitor. As a long shot is there a way out of this as the time is different on both documents.

[borisbeaver]

Normally it's a non-endorsable fixed penalty for not wearing a seat belt.

[my-spirit-soars-free]

I got stopped for this (with the phrase "you have just put your seatbelt on"). I was pretty convinced that I would remember putting it on while driving, I was utterly certain that I had been wearing it, I always wear it, no way would I drive off without it as it would feel "odd", and told them so, repeatedly... in the end they realised that the belt runs under my long, dark brown hair, and cannot be seen, so the officer who had observed me was mistaken.

 

Anyway, over to you. At 1am it is dark. It is darker in the car than outside of the car. It is very hard to see into a dark area from a well lit area, especially through glass.

 

How, therefore, could the Plod have observed your husband driving without the seatbelt? If he just observed him getting out of the car without undoing it that proves nothing, he could have undone it before taking keys out of the ignition and thereby triggering the internal light. (Perfectly legal, on private land, ie the petrol station).

 

I would say that the fact the Plod does not even know when it happened would certainly not help his credibility!

[lamma]

a summons ?? what is the exact charge ?

[postggj]

i have been driving royal mail vans for years and last month i got my first ticket for not wearing a seat belt.

 

pay the £60 and the matter is at an end

 

no points, nothing

 

ime surprised at a summons

 

the copper just gave me a ticket to pay with in 14 days

[Mossycat]

The time issue is probably because the officer recorded the offence at 0.55 BST and the paperwork is issued in GMT (ie 1 hour behind).

 

Mossy

[letshelp]

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