Penalty for not updating Driving Licence

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Dee-124CAB

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I was pulled over by two police men on my own yesterday & accused of something that i i felt i did not do.

I was then issued with 3 points & a 60 quid fine, & a producer at the station for MOT,Insurance,Driving Licence, to be done in 7 days.....

Trouble with the above is, I moved house about a year ago & lost my old style Licence in the process, it has since been found, but I have not got around to updating it.

One copper noticed that the address for my Licence that came up on his system was different to the one I gave him at the roadside which is the new one & the one that the vehicle is registered to.

They told me to surrender my Licence at the station & that DVLA will send me information on how to apply for a new photo style Licence, which will then be sent to me with the 3 points on it.

What I want to know is that by surrendering my old licence with my old address on it, am I leaving myself open to another fine or penalty for this mistake?

OR shall I send it off to DVLA myself ASAP to get it renewed, & present at the station a photocopy of my old one saying it is in the process of being updated/renewed by the DVLA?

Cheers Dee
 
I was pulled over by two police men on my own yesterday & accused of something that i i felt i did not do.

I was then issued with 3 points & a 60 quid fine, & a producer at the station for MOT,Insurance,Driving Licence, to be done in 7 days.....

Trouble with the above is, I moved house about a year ago & lost my old style Licence in the process, it has since been found, but I have not got around to updating it.

One copper noticed that the address for my Licence that came up on his system was different to the one I gave him at the roadside which is the new one & the one that the vehicle is registered to.

They told me to surrender my Licence at the station & that DVLA will send me information on how to apply for a new photo style Licence, which will then be sent to me with the 3 points on it.

What I want to know is that by surrendering my old licence with my old address on it, am I leaving myself open to another fine or penalty for this mistake?

OR shall I send it off to DVLA myself ASAP to get it renewed, & present at the station a photocopy of my old one saying it is in the process of being updated/renewed by the DVLA?

Cheers Dee

What offence did you receive the points for? AFAIK failing to update the address on one's driving licence is not an endorsable one.

I mean, what if you regularly need to use it as ID, for, say, hiring cars and therefore haven't sent it off yet? :eek: :eek:
 
I was done for using a phone whilst driving, but i am adamant i was not on the phone, i saw them tailing me for about half a mile so no way would i ever entertain the idea...

What basically gave them the idea that i may have been on the phone was the fact that i was steering the car (W124 cabriolet) with my right hand & my left elbow was resting on the armrest with my chin resting on my left hand, but they wernt having any of it.

If I say to the officer when producing that I sent it off a week ago, atleast i look more proactive, no?
 
What I want to know is that by surrendering my old licence with my old address on it, am I leaving myself open to another fine or penalty for this mistake?

Highly unlikely....


OR shall I send it off to DVLA myself ASAP to get it renewed, & present at the station a photocopy of my old one saying it is in the process of being updated/renewed by the DVLA?

Cheers Dee

Just take it along and tell them that you have not got round to doing the change of address, but that you will do so immediately.
 
I was done for using a phone whilst driving, but i am adamant i was not on the phone, i saw them tailing me for about half a mile so no way would i ever entertain the idea...

What basically gave them the idea that i may have been on the phone was the fact that i was steering the car (W124 cabriolet) with my right hand & my left elbow was resting on the armrest with my chin resting on my left hand, but they wernt having any of it.

If I say to the officer when producing that I sent it off a week ago, atleast i look more proactive, no?


Wouldn't your call register clear this up?
 
Wouldn't your call register clear this up?

I was thinking along the same lines. If they don't take the call register as proof, it's trivial to get your call record from the mobile network provider, which should prove beyond any doubt that you were not making a call.
 
I said this to them, but they said it does not matter, as being on the phone is not the offence but having it in your hands or lap is..... phone was actually in between seat & center console.
 
What basically gave them the idea that i may have been on the phone was the fact that i was steering the car (W124 cabriolet) with my right hand & my left elbow was resting on the armrest with my chin resting on my left hand, but they wernt having any of it.

What a bizarre driving position!

If I was to do that in my coupe, I wouldn't be able to see out of the windows!

Lucky you weren't done for Driving Without Due Care & Attention...
 
In any other case i would appeal the 3 points & fine without a question, but this thing with the licence has kind of made me think, maybe I should cut my losses... also the fact that I was on my own & theres two of them,is not a prospect i look foreward to in court...
 
I said this to them, but they said it does not matter, as being on the phone is not the offence but having it in your hands or lap is..... phone was actually in between seat & center console.

So let me see if I have understood you -- they pulled you over for having the phone in your lap? How did they see that ? You gotta laugh or else you would cry.!!!:mad:

If you are 100% certain you never used the phone then I would take this to court...produce phone records etc and fight my case....

Trouble is if you lose you're screwed...... but remember if you're found guilty or take the 3pts & £60 - expect a heavy insurance loading next year and for a few years thereafter....so that in itself may be a good reason to fight this one..

Only you know if you're innocent or not... so only you can make that call...(excuse the pun..:D )

Can I ask what day of the month was this? Towards the end? Smacks of someone being under target for that month... and you being the easy target to up his figures...
 
I said this to them, but they said it does not matter, as being on the phone is not the offence but having it in your hands or lap is..... phone was actually in between seat & center console.

That's a load of tosh :devil:.

Here is the legal document:
The Road Vehicles Regulations 2003

(1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle on a road if he is using -
  • (a) a hand-held mobile telephone; or

    (b) a hand-held device of a kind specified in paragraph (4).

and

(6) For the purposes of this regulation -
  • (a) a mobile telephone or other device is to be treated as hand-held if it is, or must be, held at some point during the course of making or receiving a call or performing any other interactive communication function;

I'm a stickler for the rules but if you did not commit an offense, you should not have to pay. The law is the law. If it were me and I were innocent, I would take it to court if I had to.
 
I said this to them, but they said it does not matter, as being on the phone is not the offence but having it in your hands or lap is..... phone was actually in between seat & center console.

That was unfortunate that the phone happens to be in a place where it would naturally fall if dropped suddenly.

I'd chose a different place to keep it in future.
 
So let me see if I have understood you -- they pulled you over for having the phone in your lap? How did they see that ? You gotta laugh or else you would cry.!!!:mad:

The phone was not on my lap, it was between my seat & the centre console bit, the bit about the lap was the coppers words when trying to tell me that i commited an offence, ''Its an offence to have a phone in your hands, lap, etc etc..'' was something like what he said!

Can I ask what day of the month was this? Towards the end? Smacks of someone being under target for that month... and you being the easy target to up his figures...

It was yesterday, 31st of the month...
 
I believe some folks deliberately keep two licences just in case they have to surrender one, not that we ever would. The DVLA site reckons the address can be changed online!

If I were accused of actually using my mobile phone and I definitely was not, then I couldn't care if the Pope said I was. Produce your records, have the case thrown out and then claim the costs.

Perjury is a very serious offence which will get these officers dismissed, but someone that pleads 'Not Guilty' will usually be able to say what they want without much chance of being charged with this offence. :)

Regards
John
 
I'm with Guido & John on this, if you were not using the phone, then get the records and fight it.
 
What I want to know is that by surrendering my old licence with my old address on it, am I leaving myself open to another fine or penalty for this mistake?

OR shall I send it off to DVLA myself ASAP to get it renewed, & present at the station a photocopy of my old one saying it is in the process of being updated/renewed by the DVLA?
Sending your driving licence away now, having been issued with a producer for it, might appear suspicious. Also, a photocopy might not pass muster at the police station, leaving you in more trouble for failing to produce the required documents. Besides, they're already aware of the discrepancy, so there's nothing you can do about it now anyway.

You can be fined (£1000) for not having the correct address on your driving licence. Whether you will be is an entirely different matter. I don't know what the guidelines are, but I do know that when I had to produce my driving licence at a police station, and was up-front and honest about the address on it being out of date, I wasn't fined (although I was politely reminded how easy it is to get it updated...).
 
In this country is it not up to the prosecution to prove guilt? Or has this changed?

If you have a record to show the phone was not being used then I'd fight it.
 

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