Odd amount for a speeding fine?

[Goff]

Hi everyone. I finished working for a company the middle of august.

I had a hire car from just before christmas until April when i got my company car.

I have today received a letter from the company with a copy of an invoice from the hire company saying they want me to pay £36 for a speeding fine. It does not say when or where this happened. The company i worked for want me to send £36 by cheque as they say they have paid the fine on my behalf. They quoted the company car policy which says all employees must pay for any motoring fines promptly, which I am happy to do but isnt a speeding fine £60? I thought I would have received a NIP? The hire car i was apparently caught in was handed back mid April when i got my company car, so this is 4 months down the line, and I dont even know when the alleged offence took place.

Any advice? I can phone the hire company tomorrow and get more details, and am happy to pay any fines incurred, but this seems very odd to me?

[DragonFly1967]

It's a minimum (on fixed penalty) of £100 and 3 points these days. It used to be £60+3pts. So quite where they're getting the figure of £36 from is anyone's guess.

 

Plus, if you'd been done for speeding, the DVLA (or DVLANI) would've been in touch by now requiring your driving licence so that they could decorate the counterpart for you. Most odd.

[DragonFly1967]

As an afterthought... Could it be that you've been "caught" speeding off the public highway somewhere? I know some airports (for example) enforce speed restrictions airside privately. But they don't usually incur a "fine". Perhaps some other 'not on the public highway' area??

[Goff]

Thanks for the replies Dragonfly.

I haven't been anywhere that could incur any speeding fine, i used the car on public roads, to and from work, so i really do not understand it. I wonder if it could be an "admin fee" the lease company are charging? The other thing i thought of was i went away to Birmingham on business a couple of times, and the car park had an ANPR system. I got a ticket from the hotel which meant I only had to pay £3 for overnight parking, but when i went to the machine it said it did not recognise my numberplate, so i couldnt pay. This happened several times. If it is one of these do i HAVE to pay?

[DragonFly1967]

Speeding doesn't make sense then, as the DVLA would've been after you by now if it was on public roads. So I'd say the car parking is a much more likely scenario.

 

Technically speaking, you don't have to pay these Cowboy Parking Companies (or at least, there are plenty of ways to get out of paying them), but unfortunately in your case, it looks like your (ex?) company have coughed up the ££ (sounds like £30) and are adding a further £6 for admin (that'd be my guess).

 

If you still work for them, I think you're going to have to bite the bullet and pay them back. But if you don't work for them anymore, you could just tell them to jog on. All 'Private Parking Tickets' are issued on very dubious grounds, so if your (ex) company have coughed up without exhausting the proper appeals process, which done properly means the ticket would've been cancelled with nothing to pay, it might be grounds for you to refuse to pay (them back).

 

I suppose it all depends on what your (employment) circumstances are and how much you like them

[Goff]

I do not work for them anymore, and to be honest, they stitched me right up when i left, so if i dont have to pay it then perhaps i wont. I was just puzzled that they send me this invoice with no date/time of alleged offence and expect me to just cough up. I will ring tomorrow and let you know what happens. Thank you for your help

[Goff]

so i spoke to the lease company today who sent me the paperwork realting to the alleged offence. It is dated 4/12/2014. I received an invoice from my ex employer yesterday asking for the £36 for the fine. This is a NIP.... surely it should be £60?? I have heard nothing about this until i got the letter yesterday, and the lady on the phone agreed it was REALLY odd to be a £36 fine. I was 5mph over the limit. HEre is the NIP...but its taken my ex employer 9 months to tell me?? Does this make any sense to anyone becsue it doesn't to me!

What do i do??

[DragonFly1967]

Hmm, that's my local force.

 

OK, taking action at 35 is unusual in itself. ACPO guidelines say (for a speed limit of 30) you're given an allowance of 10%+2mph over the limit, which would be 35mph. With enforcement starting at 36mph.

 

Ignore the £36 due to your ex employers, they're just trying it on in my opinion and they've no legal right to be asking you for any money (contractual obligations aside (but as you don't work for them anymore)).

 

 

Slightly more worrying is the NIP itself. But as you've heard nothing until recently, I'm not sure how best to advise you to proceed with that. I have to assume, as you've not had anyone banging on your door, that your old company have not named you as the driver, and they're waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past their 28 day deadline to do so. So you have (as I see it) three choices.

 

1. Keep your head down, and if anything else gets said (by your old company) deny all knowledge of being the driver on that day. Was anyone else authorised to drive that vehicle? Could someone else have been driving? It would be unreasonable to expect you to be able to remember (if more than one person is allowed to drive it) who was driving it on that occasion. Bear in mind that although it may have been leased to you, that would have been via your (ex) company. So there 'may' have been other members of management or staff at your (ex) company that would have been authorised by the leasing company to drive the vehicle. And staff of the leasing company would also have been authorised to drive it.

 

2. Get in touch with the SCP at Avon & Somerset. Admit to being the driver on that day, but say, quite truthfully, that you've only just been made aware. At which point one of two things are likely to happen...

...(a). They'll say don't worry about it. It's been so long now it's not really worth pursuing. or

...(b). You'll be offered a speed awareness course. In the grand scheme of things, and bearing in mind the ACPO guidance. 35 in a 30 is a nothing offence.

 

3. Get a solicitor on the case to do "2" on your behalf.

 

 

After 9 months, and having heard nothing until now, my personal choice would be "1", I don't think anyone has actually named you as the driver. So if anyone is being chased by Avon & Somerset, it's going to be your ex employers for failing to name the driver. It's so long ago, that if they do come looking at you, you could quite safely say that you've no idea/can't remember who was driving at the time.

 

But ultimately, the choice is yours to make.

[Aretnap]

The company cannot pay an FPN for speeding on your behalf, for various reasons, not least because even if they did pretend to be you and attempt to pay it for you, they would have to send in your driving licence in order for payment to be accepted.

 

My guess is that the £36 is an administration fee which the lease company charge for responding to the NIP and passing on your/your company's details to the police. Whether they can do this depends on the terms of the contract, but it's a fairly common clause in lease agreements.

 

You have nothing to lose at this stage by contacting Avon and Somerset and asking about the status of this. They certainly won't be sending you on a speed awareness course nine months after the fact and in order to prosecute you for speeding they have to begin court proceedings within 6 months of the offence - so if they haven't summonsed you yet, you won't be getting a summons. And there's no need to pretend that you can't remember who was driving - you can shout from the rooftops that you were and it will not make an iota of difference.

 

The worry would be that the company have made a mistake and provided the wrong address for you, and that a NIP has gone to that address, followed by a summons for failing to respond. You could end up being convicted and fined n your absence, and if that happens the first you knew about t might be when bailiffs are dispatched to collect the fine, track down your real address and turn up n your doorstep with a bill for several hundred pounds. While there are ways of dealing with that situation if it happens, it would make your life a lot easier if you nipped it in the bud before it got there. In other words contacting the ticket office can't possibly make your situation worse, and might potentially make it better.

 

Incidentally it's not remotely unusual to be NIPped for 35 in a 30 - the 10%+2 guideline means that 35 is the lowest speed you'll be prosecuted for, not the highest you'll get away with.