On the 7th of January I was caught speeding by a speed camera. I was doing 36mph in a 30mph zone.
However I contested this due to the special circumstances of my wife actually being in labour in the car at the time. This was not expected as she was not due for another 3-4 weeks.
I was sent the usual 'pay within x days and we'll only charge you this much' letters, which I ignored because I thought I would have a good case in court.
Eventually, in July, I recieved my court date. Even though it had taken them 6 months to sort out, they gave me only 6 days notice. I couldn't make this due to work commitments, but saw that there was an option on the form where you could plead guilty yet add in mitigating circumstances, so I thought I would do that.
I sent this in, along with my daughters birth certificate (she was born that night) and the discharge letter from the hospital.
I was surprised to recieve a letter a couple of days later telling me I owed £120 and would have 3 points on my licence.
My wife was really pissed off at this and phoned the local paper - we were featured about a week later. The reporter contacted the court and was told that if I had turned up I would have been let off. If this is the case why the f**k do they bother with the part of the form that lets you add mitigating circumstances?
I decided to appeal. This where in my eyes it really turned into a farce. After waiting for four hours I had my less that 5 minutes in court. The first question they asked me was why I hadn't paid yet. I replied that I was appealling, and had brought evidence to support my case with me (the birth certificate and discharge form I had sent in previously). They asked if I had sent it in before, to which I replied I had. They then said that as the previous court had deemed it insufficient,
they didn't want or need to see it. I always thought that at an appeal they reviewed the evidence, but apparently I am wrong about that.
They told me that the reporter was lying when he said that if I had turned up I would be let off, and that I had ten days to pay, or it would go up further.
I decided to pay and pursue other avenues. I have emailed our MP and now I am writing on here for advice. What can I do about this? I know I was speeding, but surely 6mph over the limit is discretionary, especially if you have a good reason for going faster than that. I am sure the appeal was at best not worth the effort and at worst negligent, what can I do about this? Is it to late to do anything now I have paid, even though I was given a time limit to do so?
It not about the money, and it's not (much) about the points, it about the way we seemed to be presumed guilty even when I thought we had a good case. I mean in films the police give you an escort to hospital if you are about to give birth not fine you....