RSA letter saying penalty points expired, but did not have car then

spurious

Partner got a letter from the RSA saying penalty points got on 27 May 2020 had expired.

Oh happy days

except....

she did not buy her car until August 2021 so never got any penalty points in May 2020 (wasn't that in lockdown?) and never paid any fine.

RSA emails seem to be responded to by some sort of bot, which keeps saying 'we can't give you a refund'.

Anyone else had similar?

Send a letter of complaint to:

Data Protection Officer

Road Safety Authority

Moy Valley Business Park

Primrose Hill

Ballina

Co. Mayo

F26 V6E4

Email: DataProtection (at) rsa.ie

Witcher

Did she have a licence then?

If she did, was she living with family/friends at the time?

Seems like someone used her details on a fine as the nominated driver to avoid points on their licence and may have opened the re-issued fine before it got to her and paid it.

spurious

She had a licence alright.

I will see do they have a record of whatever reg it was on, or where it was supposed to have happened.

Thanks.

GavPJ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120876023#Comment_120876023

That's what I was thinking.

9935452

Im assuming she didnt know there was penalty points on her license?

Not good tbh as the insurance company might see it as lying to them

Does the letter state what the penalty points were for by any chance..

It does sound like someone in the house got nabbed for speeding in their own car. Nominated her as the driver and paid the fine , then intercepted the resulting letter.

Were ye living with anyone at the time or had a change of address since then .you could do a gdpr request on yourself from the rsa. Request all information they have on you. Legally they had to cooporate

spurious

She was living here with me at the time, but her licence address was for the old address. She is kind of between two addresses..

The one odd thing about it is it has her name but 'Mr' before it. Now, it is a foreign name, but a clearly female name as the 'English' version of the name is very similar.

Would someone just have had to give her name and address? No mention on the letter of a car reg, just 'Exceed 60km/h limit'.

I know 3 points would probably not affect the insurance price-wise but technically we lied to them saying she had no points.

elperello

Whoever it was must have paid the fine so the payment may be traceable.

Witcher

Well I'd be casting the eye of suspicion on whoever lives at the address on her licence.

If she left her licence lying around there someone took her details from it and paid the fine when it was re-issued to her, that's my theory anyway. Get onto the RSA and find out the reg of the car, that will tell all I'd imagine.

spurious

Will do.

9935452

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120876125#Comment_120876125

Its looking more like someone at tbe other address has nominated her as the person driving. Afaik you need the license number name and address to do that..

Then intercepting the letter would have been easy to do if she wasnt there

Before she got the car did she carry the license with her or was it left in a drawer or the likes.

Out of curiosity, does the letter state that there is no penalty points on her license now

kirving

Seems nuts that you can put points on someone else and they have no idea.

spurious

Yes it says 'Total penalty points now on your record 0'. The whole letter is very washed out looking, like something you'd print at home, which is why we thought it was fake. The RSA logo for example, which is supposed to be red, is very watery looking.

The name and address they could easily get, but the licence she generally kept with her for ID.

The only people she was sharing with were male. I am presuming this must have been some sort of a Garda stop since there was no car to link her to. It's very odd. You would think the guards would find it a bit suss that a female name was being given by a guy.

Anyway, we will pursue it and update if we get to the bottom of it.

Witcher

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120877037#Comment_120877037

More likely to be a speed van, fine gets issued to the registered owner but there's an option to nominate another driver.

dbs103

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058305846/rsa-letter-saying-penalty-points-expired-but-did-not-have-car-then

Just out of curiosity, you mentioned getting an email response. Was there an email address contained in the letter you received or did you contact the RSA through their online form on their website?

spurious

There was an email on the letter, just the info@ndls.ie one.

I suspect the responses are from a bot as they don't appear to have read the email at all.

I think an old fashioned letter might be the way to get a response.

dbs103

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120877811#Comment_120877811

Ah, was just curious as your discription of the quality of the letter sounds very suspicious.

According to their website you can request a "Driver Statement". That might have the information you are looking for such as location of fine or vehicle reg.

They also have a contact number on their website. That might be quicker and talking to a person might be better for answering any questions you have.

My main concern would be if an insurance company etc. could see that your partners license had points on it at some point, even if no penalty is applicable now. Just because they are off the license doesn't mean that there isn't a record that that license had penalty points at some point.

Best of luck.

spurious

To update this...

what happened is that the speeding was actually done by someone else who was living at the address at the time, who now lives abroad. We contacted him about this.

He got the original fixed penalty letter (to his name) and paid it. It is HIS driver number that appears on the letter as a reference, but my partner's name has somehow appeared on the 'your points are gone' letter as the addressee despite the driver number and the points not being hers.

All very odd as I would have thought these letters were all issued by computers.

ANYWAY, we just have to get the RSA to erase those points from her driver record now. I know it's not a big deal in the larger scheme of things as it's only 3 points, but it could have been much worse.