Can Speeding Awareness course cover 2 speeding penalites?

[magiciansgirl]

Hello, would be grateful for some advice here. My boyfriend recently did 57mph in a 50mph zone on the M1 in Yorkshire (roadworks) realised what he'd done and wasn't surprised to get a penalty notice. He's opted to do a speed awareness course rather than the fine and points.

 

Then, and this was a complete surprise, he got a second penalty notice from Derbyshire for a week later, also a really marginal over the limit.

 

South Yorkshire Police have sent his details to the awareness course providers, he's registered with them to do a course re: the M1 incident before September 2nd.

 

The girl he spoke to says that you are only allowed to do one course (i.e. avoid points and a fine) every three years, so although the course covers off the South Yorkshire Police incident, he will have to take the fine and the points re the Derbyshire one.

 

Is she wrong - she might not know the law? It crossed his mind that by doing one course, he might satisfy the requirements of both South Yorkshire and Derbyshire Police. He's not denying the fault, I should stress.

 

Any help gratefully received; and I'm not hiding behind him - I don't drive!

 

Kind regards,

 

Magiciansgirl

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

I expect the forum guys will be along soon with advice for you.

 

I have a feeling the lady could be right, my understanding was that the speed awareness course was offered the first time only. One of the websites I looked at [there's a lot of information on google] says you can't accept a speed awareness course if you've been on one in the last 3 years.

 

My best, HB

[citizenkain]

I suspect the girl you spoke to would be right otherwise we could all go speeding in different counties and chalk up dozens of speeding fines and just turn round and say,"Im doing the speed awareness course you know..." lol

[Conniff]

That is correct, you can only do one course in 3 years and then only if offered the choice by the police, it is not your right to do one.

[Aretnap]

There is no particular law governing speed awareness courses - they're an alternative to prosecution offered at the discretion of the police so they can run them according to whatever rules they like, so long as they're reasonable.

 

Generally a course can only be done in lieu of one prosecution or fixed penalty, and the forces in the national scheme will only let you do one course every 3 years. There are a handful of forces still outside the national scheme (off the top of my hear Wiltshire and Dorset) who don't share their records with other forces, so if you're lucky enough to be caught speeding in one of those counties you can sometimes do more than one course in 3 years. But a single course would rarely if ever be allowed to cover two different offences (perhaps at their discretion in unusual circumstances, such as if you were caught twice in one short journey).

[assisted blonde]

Simlar thing happened to me one course and 3 points for the second offence. btw notts police are now offering a similar course for going over a red light if its less than 3 seconds/