Been summoned to court

  • Thread starter Thread starter VTR
  • Start date Start date
The law is equitable unless in a civil case right?

So either it is civil and you get fine/points/whatever regardless of circumstance
Or it is criminal and you get off because the punishment does not fit the crime

I thought that is what the law in this country was based on.
 
/puts Daily Mail reading hat on

If they're only giving a £265 fine now for death by dangerous driving, you'll be fine!
 
As people have said take it to your police station. The offences of not having insurance etc will be removed. Then it's up to the prosecutor if they will continue to charge you for not producing.

If they do charge you, you will have no choice but to plead guilty and it will be around 50% of one weeks wage.
 
A few years ago I received a producer and was unable to locate all my documents so went to the police station with only the MOT as that's all I could find. The lady I spoke to said I would be reported for not producing the other documents and to wait for a summons. I asked if I should take the other documents in when I found them but she said it was too late for that and it had to go to court.

I received a summons for four separate offenses of failing to produce licence, failing to produce insurance, driving without licence and driving without insurance. I went to court and they gave me a producer to take the documents to the court's local police station (not sure why they couldn't check them at court). I returned to the court and they dropped the driving without charges but fined me (£60 I think) for failing to produce.

The frustrating thing about the experience was that, after receiving the summons I spoke to a solicitor. He advised me that as a summons had been issued the only option I had was to plead guilty for failing to produce. He also said the time limit on the original producer isn't rigid and that if I'd produced the documents to the station beyond this limit, but within a reasonable time, then the failing to produce charges wouldn't have been raised. The only reason I didn't take the documents in later was because I was told at the station it would be pointless. :(

I was told when they fined me that they were taking into account that I'd made an effort to show my documents (having shown the MOT cert). It sounds like you're in pretty much exactly the same situation so I'd say you've only a small fine to worry about.
 
Mr-White said:
isnt this a bit harsh for not producing your documents especially if you have them. i've seen people get less for ABH

MW
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yea but your screwing with the government, courts etc give people with ABH for less cause they dont really care how damage you've done to some scrubs face!
 
Think yourself lucky, i had this happen to me a few years ago, got stoped by the police, told i had a warrent out for me, arrested, thrown in a cell for 6 hours, then transported 140 miles away to bristol court in the back of some prison van to be told i was being charged with failure to provide proof of insurance 6 years ago.

I got a producer, showed all the documents to the police officer who stoped me as i had them with me since i had just re-taxed my car, my friend passed away so i sent the mot/insurance/license to the station because i returned home for the funeral, heard nothing about it for 6 years then got stoped and had a whole day of my life turned upside down. Funny thing is there was no mention of not having mot or license and i know for a fact they got the documents as it was sent recorded.

All this happens to me yet theres kids around here throwing paint stripper on cars, running over roofs, stealing stuff from peoples gardens, setting alight to cars, smashing windows and a host of other things, yet the police just drive past and ignore it.

This is pretty much where i lost all respect for them :P
 
gavinpoo said:
A few years ago I received a producer and was unable to locate all my documents so went to the police station with only the MOT as that's all I could find. The lady I spoke to said I would be reported for not producing the other documents and to wait for a summons. I asked if I should take the other documents in when I found them but she said it was too late for that and it had to go to court.

I received a summons for four separate offenses of failing to produce licence, failing to produce insurance, driving without licence and driving without insurance. I went to court and they gave me a producer to take the documents to the court's local police station (not sure why they couldn't check them at court). I returned to the court and they dropped the driving without charges but fined me (£60 I think) for failing to produce.

The frustrating thing about the experience was that, after receiving the summons I spoke to a solicitor. He advised me that as a summons had been issued the only option I had was to plead guilty for failing to produce. He also said the time limit on the original producer isn't rigid and that if I'd produced the documents to the station beyond this limit, but within a reasonable time, then the failing to produce charges wouldn't have been raised. The only reason I didn't take the documents in later was because I was told at the station it would be pointless. :(

I was told when they fined me that they were taking into account that I'd made an effort to show my documents (having shown the MOT cert). It sounds like you're in pretty much exactly the same situation so I'd say you've only a small fine to worry about.
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I imagine if the court knew what the police had said they would be non too impressed. What a waste of time, money and resources. It really annoys me when stuff like this happens. In my view there could be good reason why you could not produce docs within 7 days. I've had a nightmare trying to get a replacement MOT certificate for my car. The original was lost in the post and the testing station was in Newcastle. The vehicle is MOT'd until January so I don't want to needlessly re MOT. VOSA insist that I can go to any testing station, pay £10 and get a copy. The garage I went to insisted that according to their MOT computer my car had not been tested for over 18 months and that in any case only the station it was originally tested at could issue the replacement. It sounded to me like they were just spinning me a yarn but there seemed little point in arguing although I did tell them they were wrong and VOSA had confirmed that the vehicle had a valid MOT and any station could issue a replacement. In the end I just gave up and Taxed the car online. Of course the tax system knew that my car was MOt'd (funny the garages computer didn't...) and so the disc is coming in the post. Oh I do love ****** and red tape...... I will never use the garage again because I can't trust them. Perhaps there computer was being thick but perhaps they were just lieing because they wanted to get £50 out of me for an MOT. This is why I normally use the council for MOT. (note for the rear retentive forum members I could not go to the council for this MOT matter because they were rammed full of appointments and couldn't fit me in).
 
VTR said:
Does anybody know roughly how long it takes for a new drivers license to arrive? I'd check the DVLA site myself but stuck in work at the moment.
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You probably have already looked up the answer, but I applied for a new licence myself the other week (had lost the counterpart like you, though hadn't been asked to produce it yet), and received it within about a week. I was surprised it came through so quickly...
 
Lord-Jaffa said:
...my friend passed away so i sent the mot/insurance/license to the station because i returned home for the funeral, heard nothing about it for 6 years then got stoped and had a whole day of my life turned upside down. ...
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To be fair, I got a producer the other day, and it clearly states on it you need to personally go to the station with the required information :)
 
***UPDATE***

After obtaining both my paper part of the license and proof that I was insuared at the time I then rang up the court and asked them if it was my best interest to attend or if I should just send in my paper work, they said to just send in the paper work, the charges for the not having insurance and not having a license will be dropped and I may get a fine if anything. Great I thought.

So I sent in my documents via recorded delivery well before the court date (2-3 weeks) and then rang up to confirm they got them which they had. I also included a letter pleading guilty to not producing and not guilty to the other 2 charges, also explaining my reasons for not producing - having to get another paper part of license, officer at police station told me there was no time limit etc.

Fast forward to this week and I get a nice letter through the post... Sent via normal post once again (nothing has been sent recorded to me so I may not have even got it as far as they know!)

Basically the letter just says you have been convicted, the case has been ajorned the court intends to ban you from driving please attend at the date shown below (around 10days after recieving the letter, nice long notice they give you!)

I mean wtf is going on with them, are they that incompetent that they somehow haven't even looked at my documents (the woman I rang confirmed they had recieved them 2 weeks prior to the court case!) There was no explanation with the letter, just says I have been convicted and they intend to ban me! What a stupid justice system, they'll probably try and charge me for 2 court costs aswell now when I attend a week monday :rolleyes:

I assume when I get to court they will realise their error and probably fine me for not procuding + cost courts (x2? :mad:). Where do I stand legally with this? Surely I shouldn't be paying any court costs for this error they have made? And they can **** right off if they think they are banning me! I will just carry on driving if that's the case and not bother with insurance like many others seem to do anyway.
 
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