My Dad told me the speed camera in our town hasn’t worked for five years so I thought it was pretty safe to ignore the 30mph signs whilst riding my KTM 125 Duke to university and back. I haven’t been flying around, but equally I haven’t stuck to the ‘letter of the law’ and I have now received two Notices of Intended Prosecution for doing 40mph in a 30mph. My Dad laughed and told me I am a man and will have to sort it out myself. However, my Mum did her biscuit, and it has been somewhat frosty for the past few days.
I have read on the internet that I should get offered a fixed penalty for each offence. If I accept the two fixed penalty offers, will I be banned from riding as I have a provisional licence? I don’t have a car driving licence either. I have read somewhere else that I am only allowed to get six points before being banned as I’m only 21 years old.
Answer
No one needs an angry mother!! I remember my Mum doing her biscuit when I was around 15 years old, after I wheelied my motorbike through the shed. A cloud of two-stroke smoke; me laying there like a sack of potatoes; and a broken shed door! Leaving that aside, as you will be aware, a fixed penalty offer involves three penalty points being endorsed on the licence and a £100 fine. In your case that would be for each offence. As for being banned for having six points, as you have not taken your ‘full’ motorbike (or full car) test the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 doesn’t affect you. If you had a ‘full’ licence and you got six or more points on it within two years of obtaining it, the full licence will be revoked.
In this scenario you would have to redo all your tests. So bizarrely, you are lucky inasmuch as you have not yet done your full test within the last two years. Lastly, I would just add that you may get offered a speed awareness course. You can only accept this for one of the offences, not both. However, if you pay the fee and attend the course, it will avoid three of the points. Please note that once you’ve attended a course, you won’t be allowed to go to another one for three years.
Andrew ‘Chef’ Prendergast
More Bikes – December 2024
