Caught Speeding in the North - Urgent

gaatipstr

Hi everyone. Need some help. Im from midlands but working up on the Tyrone/Donegal border. Im staying in Donegal but working in Tyrone. I was caught doing 40mph in a 30 zone one day. Been honest i tought the speed limit was 40 but thats neither here or there, I was caught.
The policeman pulled me in and I showed him my licence. He then said that hed have to arrest me as i dont live in the North. I asked could I give my work address so he let me do that. He took my licence off me and said that I could either let him arrest me and bring me to the station, let it go to court or I could wait and that in a few weeks the Police will send me Details of a day course I can do to avoid Court, so I agreed for the course one. I prob should of let him arrest me and be out in an hour but at the time i was a bit nervous as I only started the job up here and to be honest he wasnt one bit nice.

So in the meantime the police have my licence. I got a letter last week saying that i have to book a place on this course by tomorrow (20th) and i have to pay £85 and if i complete course i get my licencre back. I happen to be talking to a retired policeman the other day and he told me that they cant put me on this course and that I should only have to pay £60 fine and i'll get 3 points on an northern licence if I ever apply for one.

Can anybody tell me what I should do. Should I pay for this course tomorrow or should I go to the station and tell them that I would like the 3 points on an Northern Licence instead?

Any help would be appreciated

fasttalkerchat

gaatipstr wrote: »

Hi everyone. Need some help. Im from midlands but working up on the Tyrone/Donegal border. Im staying in Donegal but working in Tyrone. I was caught doing 40mph in a 30 zone one day. Been honest i tought the speed limit was 40 but thats neither here or there, I was caught.
The policeman pulled me in and I showed him my licence. He then said that hed have to arrest me as i dont live in the North. I asked could I give my work address so he let me do that. He took my licence off me and said that I could either let him arrest me and bring me to the station, let it go to court or I could wait and that in a few weeks the Police will send me Details of a day course I can do to avoid Court, so I agreed for the course one. I prob should of let him arrest me and be out in an hour but at the time i was a bit nervous as I only started the job up here and to be honest he wasnt one bit nice.

So in the meantime the police have my licence. I got a letter last week saying that i have to book a place on this course by tomorrow (20th) and i have to pay £85 and if i complete course i get my licencre back. I happen to be talking to a retired policeman the other day and he told me that they cant put me on this course and that I should only have to pay £60 fine and i'll get 3 points on an northern licence if I ever apply for one.

Can anybody tell me what I should do. Should I pay for this course tomorrow or should I go to the station and tell them that I would like the 3 points on an Northern Licence instead?

Any help would be appreciated

The points will go on your southern license unfortunately. I think you should get in touch with a solicitor because as far as I know they PSNI should have sent your license to the authorities south of the border and sent you the fine.

Atomic Pineapple

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

The points will go on your southern license unfortunately.

Since when?

Tefral

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

The points will go on your southern license unfortunately. I think you should get in touch with a solicitor because as far as I know they PSNI should have sent your license to the authorities south of the border and sent you the fine.

I set off loads of speed cameras in the North and never got points or a fine. If your caught in the North and have a southern licence, you cannot get points on your southern licence.

Big Nasty

draffodx wrote: »

Since when?

+1

That hasn't come in to effect yet but I'm sure it will in the not too distant future.

OldmanMondeo

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

The points will go on your southern license unfortunately. I think you should get in touch with a solicitor because as far as I know they PSNI should have sent your license to the authorities south of the border and sent you the fine.

Since when did this happen? I was under the impression that they cross border agreement had still to be sorted?

OP, the Policeman had no right to take your licence away, only a judge could order that. Pay whatever fine comes out and request your licence back, or apply for a replacement one.

gaatipstr

These will not go on my Southern licence. The policeman said that a ''ghost'' licence will be created in my name and that If i ever apply for a northern licence Ill automatically get 3 points.

What im confused is. Where do i pay the fine. The letter that came out was for the speeding course which is done by AA in conjunction with the PSNI and that is £85. That is not the £60 fine that I should be paying, but they done tell me where to pay this fine

Mycroft H

Just cheaper to claim you lost your licence rather then do the course?

Our man in Havana

This is why you do not mess with foreign police forces.

scoobymunster

For what it's worth, doing the course isn't a bad thing. I know people that have done similiar and they think it's changed their perceptions on the road for the better. That said, I doubt you'd be interested paying extra to do a course which means you driving to Belfast or somewhere and losing a days work. I'd go to a police station and pay the fine. Definitely don't just ignore it if your cars regularly in NI, you'd prob get hassle by the police everytime your in NI.

CiniO

MCMLXXV wrote: »

+1

That hasn't come in to effect yet but I'm sure it will in the not too distant future.

First before they introduce it within EU, they would have to unify penalty points system, because it can't be that you get 2 points for speeding by 10km/h in Ireland, 3 in UK, and 5 in Spain, or something.

CiniO

I'd say NI must be the only country in Europe where you can get arrested for a small traffic offence, like speeding by 10km/h.

Shane732

Our man in Havana wrote: »

This is why you do not mess with foreign police forces.

What?

I wouldn't have been that quick to hand my licence over to him.

If there's a fine then pay the fine but other than that I'd be very surprised if a foreign jurisdiction had any right to take a Southern licence off you and retain it. I'd also doubt the legitimacy of making you do a NI driving course. You have a Southern licence so what has a Northern course to do with your licence?

Is speeding an arrestable offense?

johnos1984

Shane732 wrote: »

Is speeding an arrestable offense?

Yes in NI.

Shane732

johnos1984 wrote: »

Yes in NI.

Note to self!

L1011

BX 19 wrote: »

Just cheaper to claim you lost your licence rather then do the course?

Lost? It was quite clearly stolen...

I'd go for this, to be honest.

Marcusm

Shane732 wrote: »

What?

I wouldn't have been that quick to hand my licence over to him.

If there's a fine then pay the fine but other than that I'd be very surprised if a foreign jurisdiction had any right to take a Southern licence off you and retain it. I'd also doubt the legitimacy of making you do a NI driving course. You have a Southern licence so what has a Northern course to do with your licence?

Is speeding an arrestable offense?

I think that if you're apprehended in the commission of the offence, any offence is an arrestable one. The "arrest" is the literal meaning - stopping you. For non UK licence holders/non UK residents I thought that the whole point was they had to bring you to a station to charge you an then permit bail. There was a long set of posts on this 6 months or so ago. I don't think he's entitled to issue a fixed penalty notice to a non UK address so he may have done you a favour by accepting your NI work address as a residential one. So far as I am aware you should not have any points or shadow points if you undertake the driver reeducation course.

Perhaps talk to a solicitor bu if I am correct that the fixed penalty position is not applicable for non residents then you'll have a mandatory court appearance which I imagine you'd probably prefer to avoid.

Fwiw, 40mph zones are fairly unusual!

MugMugs

If you dont play how the PSNI want you too then be VERY careful next time you tip up North.

Believe me !

Jimmy Bottlehead

MugMugs wrote: »

If you dont play how the PSNI want you too then be VERY careful next time you tip up North.

Believe me !

You can't leave us hanging at that! What happened?

MugMugs

My mates up sh1t creek with no paddle.

Ongoing case so won't say.

Raskolnikov

Can you give the general jist of what happened? I am in suspense here.

johnos1984

Raskolnikov wrote: »

Can you give the general jist of what happened? I am in suspense here.

:pac:

Stinicker

You should have told the RUC officer that "Your" licence is the property of the Irish Minister for Transport and if he wanted it he could apply to the minister for it.

How far from the Border were you OP? The minute I cross the border I am generally sitting at 100mph+ road conditions permitting and have set my fastest non-Autobahn speeds whilst in the North.

johnos1984

Stinicker wrote: »

You should have told the RUC officer that "Your" licence is the property of the Irish Minister for Transport and if he wanted it he could apply to the minister for it.

How far from the Border were you OP? The minute I cross the border I am generally sitting at 100mph+ road conditions permitting and have set my fastest non-Autobahn speeds whilst in the North.

My experience of PSNI officers is that they wouldn't take that **** from you, me or anyone else. Thick and ignorant yes, but **** takers ....... NO

BTW it's the passport which is the property of the state IIRC not your drivers licence

Stinicker

johnos1984 wrote: »

My experience of PSNI officers is that they wouldn't take that **** from you, me or anyone else. Thick and ignorant yes, but **** takers ....... NO

BTW it's the passport which is the property of the state IIRC not your drivers licence

Try claiming that if you were disqualified for Drink driving etc, I'd just speak the few words of Irish I have to confuse them even further.

johnos1984

Stinicker wrote: »

Try claiming that if you were disqualified for Drink driving etc, I'd just speak the few words of Irish I have to confuse them even further.

:rolleyes:

You really are clueless.

You do know Irish is taught up North and there are probably more Irish speakers per captia than South of the border.

If you refuse to communicate through English and the officer can't speak Irish you WILL be arrested until such time as an interpreter can be found.

BTW you really need to know the back roads well if you are making a break for the border and want to get away. The call ahead to the Gardaí in Fundalk....

Fishtits

CiniO wrote: »

I'd say NI must be the only country in Europe where you can get arrested for a small traffic offence, like speeding by 10km/h.

Not so.

I've just been talking to a PSNI Officer, who admitted she was rusty on the road stuff but did say that taking his license seemed very unusual and she couldn't say for certain if it was kosher TBH.

The usual course of action was either to issue a verbal warning and on your way, or arrest and present to a magistrate/court. The latter course of action usually only taken when the offender is really taking the p*ss either by the speed/manner of driving they were doing or their attitude when stopped.

The arrest issue is due to the fact that you are non resident.

PS. I suspect the OP isn't telling us everything...

johnos1984

Fishtits wrote: »

Not so.

I've just been talking to a PSNI Officer, who admitted she was rusty on the road stuff but did say that taking his license seemed very unusual and she couldn't say for certain if it was kosher TBH.

The usual course of action was either to issue a verbal warning and on your way, or arrest and present to a magistrate/court. The latter course of action usually only taken when the offender is really taking the p*ss either by the speed/manner of driving they were doing or their attitude when stopped.

I've never heard of a licence been taken.

I have heard of them frog marching people to ATM's to withdraw the fine and pay it and people who cannot pay spend a night in the cells.

Stinicker

johnos1984 wrote: »

I've never heard of a licence been taken.

I have heard of them frog marching people to ATM's to withdraw the fine bribe and pay it and people who cannot pay spend a night in the cells.

Fixed that for you!

Jimmy Bottlehead

Are you SURE it was a cop, and not just someone who trolled you into giving them your licence? :pac:

stevemac

you can get a replacement licence for down south alright. Just say it was lost. Don't know how the PSNi will react next time you get stopped though.