Fines and getting out of them

[needhelplux]

Any help would be great on the matter..

Back in Feb we got a fine for doing 20km over the limit..
The officer pulled us over and had no ticket book at the time.

Took down the details , and away he went.

We never got the fine.

8 months later we receive a court letter stating the fine has not been paid.
So we agreed to making a payment plan to sort out the 300 odd $$ we owe.

So they updated the address and they got it wrong again, lucky enough the postman had a brain and figured it out.
(the first time the were 9 houses out)
(2nd time they got a whole different name when we only update the number)

I did some research and found that if they get your details wrong they can correct the fine and repost it as long as they get the details correct and in a reasonable time frame . But in our case it has been 8 months.

We were never quoted how much the fine would of been originally as no ticket was produced.

We will pay the fine if we have to. But just looking to see if anyone has had anything similar as i have seen on other forums about time frames of getting details correct.

also would be happy getting the original 28 days to pay the original correct fine that should of been given to us. but yeah court fines and a fine that was never received..

Cheers in advance

[rollaholic]

you have three options -

A) send a letter
B) hire a lawyer
C) start a revolution and over-throw the establishment (bonus points for fight club style destruction of credit / fine records)

[BZG Wagon]

You have to apply to the court to have the fine turned back over to the police (complete a 'form 57').
This should cancel all the additional charges so you can pay the original fine, or dispute the ticket.

[RunningRich]

Whatever you do put it in writing. Do you still have the evidence they got your address wrong? I assume you gave the info over the phone?

I had a similar situation (decade ago) when a court baliff rang me to tell me I had a 2 year old unpaid fine. WTF? I had a speedcamera fine that never made it to me due to changes of flats.

The courts use the address against your drivers licence, not the address against your vehicle. As this was wrong in the system they couldn't find me until he looked me up in the phone book (I have an uncommon name, not hard to find).

Luckily over the phone he had authority to wipe the penalties (as I was never notified) and I happily paid the small fine.

In this case they may argue you were aware of the fine and should have followed up. You could argue that the fine has never been served on you and therefore until it is served you are not responsible for making payment.

Hopefully they are as helpful as they were for me!

[wde_bdy]

You have the responsibility to ensure the adress registered against your licence is correct, it is a separate register to car ownership so updating your car registration details won't update your licence. So the important question, did they send it to your old address or did they get the address wrong when they wrote it down? If they got the address wrong and you have never lived there then the problem is theirs and you have a good argument. If it was sent to the address linked to your licence then it is your problem and you will be liable. You will get the run around as no one will want to do the paperwork but if it is their stuff up then just keep pushing it until they sort it out.

Callum

[Mr Ree]

Normally the way these things work is they make it so much hard work for you to go through with filling out a form 57, and getting a JOP's signature etc, that its easier to just pay the fine and court costs.

They know that going through all this drama normally includes taking time of work to go to the courts to apply etc, which equals lost wages, and they use it heavily to their advantage in these situations.

[needhelplux]

You have the responsibility to ensure the adress registered against your licence is correct, it is a separate register to car ownership so updating your car registration details won't update your licence. So the important question, did they send it to your old address or did they get the address wrong when they wrote it down? If they got the address wrong and you have never lived there then the problem is theirs and you have a good argument. If it was sent to the address linked to your licence then it is your problem and you will be liable. You will get the run around as no one will want to do the paperwork but if it is their stuff up then just keep pushing it until they sort it out.

Callum

Yup the officer asked for the address at the time of being pulled over,
eg we gave 207a memorial ave

they sent the original fine to 200 memorial ave (so never got that one)
then a week ago we got a court letter stating the fine..

They updated the address over the phone and somehow managed to change the street to something else, the posty figured it out.. but if he didnt how would that stand.

Wil look into the 57 form as its a bit unfair we pay the extra fees as we never got the original ticket

[MrOizo]

If they're being minges about it all, there is always the media. Campbell Live and Close Up would have a field day