Ian E

iTrader: (1)

I was caught speeding on my Motorbike a few weeks ago at a claimed 96 MPH in a 60 MPH limit.

I was caught with a laser gun and didn't realise I'd been clocked until a couple of miles down the road - when a Police SCOOBY appeared in my mirrors and pulled me over!

The Court Summons arrived today. Does anyone know what sort of sentence I am likely to expect? I currently have a clean license.

Is it worth getting a Solicitor involved and if so are there any that specialise in traffic offences.

Any advice very much appreciated,

Cheers,

Ian.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Briefly - you have the potential of being banned from driving for upto 6 months + large fine.

You may be lucky but if you want to possibly mitigate your punishment (if found guilty) I would strongly advise a solicitor.

Doesn't say in your profile where from - so no recommendations.

SCOTTY

Where are you from?

Steve_Yeowart

PUFF slightly OTT there. If its your first offence the ban is likly to be anything from 7 to 28 days plus fine, just had a mate stopped for 105 mph on the motorway, and this is what his lawyer has said, that is first offence though. By the way this is a traffic specialist lawyer he asked and he asked about taking it to the europen courst etc all the usual stuff and was basically told forget it and accept the ban. There was reasoning behind this but can't remember it off hand

[This message has been edited by Steve_Yeowart (edited 17 October 2000).]

Ian E

iTrader: (1)

I'm from Bradford (West Yorks)and was caught near Skipton (Yorkshire Dales). The Summons is from Skipton Court.



[This message has been edited by Ian E (edited 17 October 2000).]

Stuart H

I would expect you to get a ban (anything from 7 days to 6 months) as well as a fairly hefty fine (maximum £1000) and between 3 & 6 points on your license.

As you were that far over the limit I would advise you get a solicitor involved to deal with mitigating circumstances. Magistrates are hotting up on blatant flouting of the speed limits at the moment especially when motorcycles are involved.

You could try having a look at

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Steve

Sorry chap, not being OTT - just factual. That is the range & pls note said "upto" - not "willdo". It depends whose on the bench at the time & what they're like. It will help to try & make the best impression possible.

Besides Ian will only get the hump if we say he'll only get 7/14 days + £200 & he gets the full 6 mnths + £1000, which he might...

JGRIFF

1. Attend in person wear a suit and tie, apologise to the court, & eat a large slice of humble pie.

2. Hire a good solicitor, look at the Association of British Drivers list for a local (to you and the court)firm.

3. Be prepared to be disqualified, 96 in a 60 i.e. on a normal a road is not good, and the courts deal with a lot of speeding offences (good roads - low population) and take a dim view of this sort of offence

Greg Small

Ian,
Just tell them that you thought that you were being chased by a national newspaper. They’ll bound to let you off.

OR

Nip down to Inter Sport and check out their range of cheap Hi Tech’s or Pumas.

Cheers
Greg

KenG

Ian, As you have discovered, the A65/A59 area of Skipton is patrolled by a very quick and very active police Scooby.

The word from one of my colleagues, caught on the same beat, is that Skipton does not have a hanging court, but has one that is pretty damn close. He will be travelling by train and bus for the next six months.

Ken

Pazza

***Unhelpful & offensive post removed***

[This message has been edited by Stuart H (edited 18 October 2000).]

HunterB

Stuart H

Thanks for the quick and comprehensive reply. Another question (and apologies for being off this current topic): I've been trying to find out what the Law is regarding the siting of auxiliary front lights (like the Impreza's front fogs and their straight replacement by driving lamps). I recall from my road rallying days that driving lamps had to have their centres at or above a particular minimum height from the road (and extinguish on dip) and that lamps fitted below that height could only be used in fog (or in similar restricted-visibility conditions). If there's a website giving this type of information, please just point me there.

Thanks,
Brian

IanF

Confessional Time...

111 on the M40 in June 98 in a Vectra 1.8.

Court appearance (Stratford on Avon), 14 day ban and £300 fine, no points.

Just turned up, pleaded guilty and said I was very sorry.

Didn't bother with a solicitor, I just read out a pre-prepared statement which I put together with the help of the RAC. If you are a memeber, their legal helpline will provide some useful info and advice.

Looking back I was lucky as I have no points and when I think about it I can't believe that I was stupid enough (from a safety point of view) to be doing 111 in a 1.8 Vectra.

Regards
IanF


Was a first offence by the way.

AWD

What's your profession?

A close friend of mine was clocked (with girlfriend attached) on his bike doing 95 in a 40 zone (A4). It was dry and at night with not many around and luckily they clocked him after he'd slowed down from over 120. He is a doctor and due to him needing his bike to get to/from work and also due to the positive report from the plod saying that it was as safe as it could have been, nobody else was in danger etc. - he was given 5 points and a £500 fine.

sunilp

Pazza, **** off u ****er.

Bajie

Webmaster

As Pazza has only one post and made this post with the deliberate intention of provoking a negative reaction, which he did, can you not halt any continued postings from this entity?

Ian E

iTrader: (1)

Pazza,

Cheers for the very constructive advice you have given (NOT!)

Many Thanks to everybody else.

Ian.

Jules

Ian

I have the name & number of a very good lawyer who specialises in traffic offences. He does a lot of work for the Porsche owners club (so is probably very busy !)
Drop me a mail if interested - & good luck !


Jules

Leigh

If I were you, I'd just plead guilty and keep your fingers crossed!

You may want to, erm, understate your income when they ask! - It makes a difference!

FYI, I got caught doing 99.26mph in a 70 limit, - 5 points and just under £300 fine!
If I had been doing 1mph more, I would, apparently been looking at a 2 week ban.

It put 10% on my insurance too!

Good luck!

Leigh

Stuart H

I've removed the offending post.

HunterB

Stuart H

A ban AND points on the licence?? I always thought it was one or the other (and that any ban eliminated any current points on the licence). Prepared to be educated ....

Brian

Mojo

Ian,

I'm sorry to hear about your conviction.
No advice I'm affraid, but I am interested in the location. Was it the A65? I drive it alot and although they have placed speed camera signs, I have never seen a police speed trap.
The road is a very tempting road to drive fast, espically when the idiot you are over taking decides to accelarate too (why do all BMW owners think they have an M3? ).
I know the Skipton police have some nice Scooby hardware.

Thanks for giving me the chance to learn from your experience too.

Good luck

Mojo

Mellow Yellow !

iTrader: (1)

Ian,
Just to lighten your situation, listen to my predicament....

2 years ago having had a clean license for over 16 years I was travelling down to london from manchester at 4.30am, conditions superb although obviously dark, travelling at above motorway regulation. In the 3rd lane came up to a van who had no reason to be there ( both inside lanes were free ) I awaited it's movement to the 2nd lane to allow my passing, keeping approx 2-3 cars distance behind, eventually it moved and I went passed, it was at that time I noticed a car 3-4 car lengths behind me, a short way on the blues came on and I was stopped. Being very appologetic I held my hands up for the fact that I was speeding and was given a caution and would be reported for doing 96mph etc....me thinks s**t after 16 years I'm gonna get 3 points and a fine.....no-way, when the summons came I was being accused of driving without due care and attention and speeding !!!!going to Salford court with my very expensive brief ( £800 ) I was given 6 points for the due care ( supposedly driving at speed too close up to a vehicle, which is a pet hate of us all and didn't beleive to be true ) and 3 points for the speeding, = 9 points and a £350 fine..total bill inc solicitor = £1150 ! Now my predicament....3 weeks ago I was travelling northbound M6 to the Lakes in my yellow scoob in the flow of light traffic when I noticed a ford galaxy on top of a motorway bridge with camera, checking my scoobies speedo I was doing 80mph, too late...a little way down the road got pulled by a green t5 and was reported for speeding on the motorway at 87mph.
I'm now awaiting a summons from chorley police, I'm gonna get 3 points for sure but on tot up I'm up for a ban, in mitigation I was with the flow of traffic and other vehicles were passin regularly, I was unlucky...or was it the fact that my scoob said STOP ME !!!!!also my car being an import was not speedo reading correctly, evidently being 10 - 15% out either way...I'm not getting a brief and the worry of this situation is causing no end of grief at home...lets both hope that we can come across to the bench that we are mature experienced drivers and need some leniency here...I'd rather do community service than lose my license...my wife who's in the job says there is currently zero tollerance in most forces on speeding...so th 5% rule is no more! BEWARE

Stuart H

Brian,

Road Traffic Regulation Act 1988 section 89(1) - this covers the penalties magistrates can hand out for exceeding speed limits.

The penalties are listed as these:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Level 3 fine (i.e max £1000)
<LI>Discretionary disqualification
<LI>Obligatory 3 to 6 points (3 on issue of Fixed Penalty)
</UL>

Things are <I>slightly</I> different in 100mph+ cases because this is automatic ban territory.

[This message has been edited by Stuart H (edited 18 October 2000).]

NickF

Ian ,

Having been in the same situation (except I was 45mph over in a 50), also on a bike, my experiences/advice are as follows.

1 Get a solicitor - I used a chap called Andrew Dalton who advertises in the bike mags, but there are many others. Try to get a bike specialist.

2 I got my barrister to make the point that I would lose my job if a ban was imposed, and that a bigger fine and points would teach me a lesson, but a ban would unnecessarily punish me. They bought that one.

3 I got fined £1000 and got 6 points, but no ban. Note that if you plead guilty you should get a one point reduction - for some reason the magistrates chose not to do this for me (the sods!)

4 The fine will be based on your DISPOSABLE income - if you can show that you have childcare costs, a pension etc (which must be shown through your bank account)this will obviously not be disposable. I set up a savings scheme to a mutual society and this was accepted as being non-disposable. Try as I might, I couldn't get my disposable income down to less than £300 per month - they told me that my fine was based on 3 months disposable. So start that pension if you have a reasonably high monthly cash surplus in your bank a/c.

5 The magistrates don't like bikes. I was actually asked why I was riding a bike at the time. The temptation to say "because I want to" was almost overwhelming, but I mumbled something about traffic.

6 I had medical evidence which should have mitigated to an extent, but was totally ignored.

If I'd had no solicitor/barrister, I'd have shown a lot more on the income front, and probably not have presented such a good case. I reckon he got me off a ban, which you could say I'm pleased about. It's hardly affected my insurance, which isn't the case with a ban!

Hope some of this helps - please mail me off-list if I can help further.

DocJock

Pazza

Advice was requested, not your opinion on the offence.

DJ

RonaldoH

Pazza, nice reply.

Ian, drop me an e-mail. A very close friend of mine is a barrister and will give you some sound advice if needed.

Best of luck mate. Hopefully a scummy thief or a joyrider will be in before you and make your offence look slightly more bareable from the magistrates perspective.

Regards
RonnieH

harryh

Bad luck Mellow, that's a real shame m8. Bloody zero tolerance is bullsh1t, This damn government has NEVER been interested in our wellfare (disagree if you like but I'm not changing my mind on that one) but are solely interested in generating revenue. And if a few responsible motorists have to what, well what the hell do they (the government) care? They have become obsessed with speeding but what are they doing about the reasons for the other 75% of road accidents? F All squared that's what.

PS If you do get banned Mellow (hope you don't though) do you need volunteers to take the F40 for a spin now and then to keep her running smoothly?

Blackscooby

Ian,

Just of of interest where abouts did they get you. I know they are VERY active on Sundays around the Ingleton area....

Often an unmarked Scooby patrolling....

I'm often around north of Skipton at weekends.

Mark

beatle

out of interest does anybody have a a radar detector ...! i bought one before the delivery of my scooby and have used it now for about 6 months , and it has saved me on many a late night on an empty road from being zapped with a hand held laser gun. altho trying to trap motorists at 1 am in the morning on deserted A roads is a very good use of police resources