Speeding Fixed Penalty Notice  – Accept or Ignore?

If the police offer you a Speeding Fixed Penalty Notice you have  a choice.  You can “accept” the ticket by going to a Scottish Court with your licence and the means of paying the fine.  Otherwise, you can ignore it.

Accepting a Speeding Fixed Penalty Notice

If you accept a Speeding Fixed Penalty Notice the court will endorse 3 points on your licence and take payment of the fine – currently £100.  These points are part of your DVLA record and the points will be written on the paper part of your licence – the “counterpart”.  This is not a criminal record, but it is part of your official driving history.  If you already have points, or if you get points in the future, you may be at risk from a “totting up ban” of 6 months or more.

Ignoring a Speeding Fixed Penalty Notice

If you have been given a Speeding Fixed Penalty Notice and you don’t want to take the points, then you should simply ignore the ticket. The same applies if you have 9 “live points” or more on your driving licence.  After 28 days, the police system recognizes that the ticket hasn’t been “accepted”, and the matter is referred to the local prosecutor for a court hearing.  There is no mechanism to “fight” a Speeding Fixed Penalty Notice.  All you do with a ticket is ignore it.  If you wish to contest the speeding case, you should wait until there is a court case, and argue the matter in court.

If I Ignore a Speeding Fixed Penalty Notice, will I be reported for Dangerous Driving?

Sometimes, drivers are left with the impression that if they don’t take a Speeding Fixed Penalty, the police will report them to the prosecution service for a more serious crime.  This isn’t the case.  If the police officers’ honest view is that the driving amounts to speeding, then they will report you for speeding. If the view of the officers is that this is more serious than speeding, for example, that the driving amounts to Dangerous Driving, then the officers wouldn’t offer you a speeding ticket in the first place.

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