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committed an offence before, I have a clean licence and I don’t know what to do. I’m worried they are going to place me at risk of a ban. I have had a look online and a lot of people are saying just to ignore it. If I do what are the chances it will just go away?
My first question would be whether you accept that you were speeding. If you do not, then it is possible there could have been something wrong with the speed camera, which we would need to look into.
A
If you did accept that you were travelling at the speeds alleged, then the second question I would ask would be about the signage and whether it is clear it was a 30 mph limit. If there were a system of street lighting no more than 200 yards apart, then that would indicate it would be a 30 mph limit. If, however, there are signs on the road that indicate otherwise, we may be able to argue that the signs are confusing or even unlawful.
If you accept that you were speeding and that the sig- nage was adequate, then I would advise the next step would be to contact the Police directly to see if we could chip away at one or two of the offences to pre- vent you from being at risk of disqualification. Whatever you do, do not ignore these letters. It sounds like you may have received four requests for driver information, in which case you will need to respond. If you ignore it and leave the Police to their own devices you could be prosecuted for failing to provide driver information four times and could be at risk of up to 24 penalty points. However, with our help we would assist you in return- ing these letters and then with gentle negotiations, we may be able to persuade the Police not to take any further action on one or two of the matters. We may be able to agree for you to complete a speed aware- ness course as an alternate to prosecution on one and hopefully persuade them to drop another one, on the basis that you have an impeccable driving history and never had the opportunity to correct your driving behaviour, given that you received the first speeding fine after the last one had been committed. It is vital that we get to work straight away with this, please call us when you can so we can contact the Police as soon as possible.
Q
I am from India and have been living in the UK for one year. I have just got my new visa through that allows me to stay in the UK per- manently; I know that I can drive for 12 months with my Indian licence after becoming a resident.
OCTOBER 2015
Because I have just received my visa does this mean I can now drive another 12 months?
The law allows foreign nationals to drive on a foreign licence for 12 months from the date they become resident. Becoming a resident is not necessarily dependent on visas. For the purposes of the Road Traffic Act, when the Court decides whether somebody is resident they look at a number of factors including where their permanent home is, what the person’s intentions are (i.e. whether they intend to remain in the UK or not), where that person works and whether that person has a house in the UK. It is quite a complicated issue. To give an example, there are two cases that the Courts often consider. The first is of a Mexican stu- dent who studied in the UK for three years. He did not have a bank account, never worked and had no intentions of remaining in the UK after his studies. He never applied for a visa. According to the Home Office he was not a resident, but the Court found that for the purposes of the Road Traffic Act he was. They considered he was staying permanently for those years, so would need to apply for a full UK licence after the first 12 months. This is compared with the case of a UK national who lived in the USA but owned a shooting lodge in Scotland. He had a UK passport and was able to remain in the UK perma- nently. However he lived and worked in America and returned to Scotland once or twice a year for a holi- day. Despite technically being a resident of the UK, for the purposes of the Road Traffic Act he was deemed not to be a resident, so he was able to drive for 12 months on a foreign licence upon each entry into the UK.
A
In your case it is possible that you may have become a resident when you arrived in the UK last year, meaning the 12 months allowing you to drive on the Indian licence would have started then. However, it also depends on whether you have left the UK since, what your intentions were then and what you have been doing for the last 12 months. We would need to discuss it in more detail. If you continue to drive, you may be stopped for driving without a licence and could soon find yourself in Court.
This impartial advice has been provided by Patterson Law Solicitors Patterson Law - 01626 359800
www.pattersonlaw.co.uk
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