Fixed penalty notice

[s999srk]

My girlfriend was pulled over by a police car 30 metres from her home after they quietly followed her for 10 minutes. Then issued her with a �30 fine for having a broken headlight bulb (side light worked fine). I thought it was unfair, and the prosecuting officer is on probation, the whole incident seemed like a training exercise. The penalty notice form seems incomplete with the 'incident end' time not completed. Any one know of a loophole out of it? any help would be great.

[pagey]

They can be petty when they want. A guy in portsmouth got a �30 fine for having foglights on which may seem petty but is there for a reason. Same with the lights really. Is a pain when you have to go and find the time to get a replacement - but maybe consider carrying spares. I doubt there will be any loophole worth persuing considering the fine is for only �30.

[s999srk]

True, maybe its me being one sided but, there was about 1 minute left of driving, therefore being at risk. Then they let us drive home with the broken bulb still in place, how can it be legal after they've made they're money? Its all unfair and a scheme for money.

[qapmoc]

So according to you they must obviously know where you live to make sure that they stopped you just before you arrived home! From your comments I suppose it would have been ok if they stopped you after 30 seconds and you were 5 miles from home?
Lets face it you admit the light wasn't working so you got ''done'', I have little sympathy with your attitude because my brother in law had a major accident and was left with permanent injuries after being hit head on by what he thought was a motorcycle and turned out to be a car with the offside headlight not working.

[Grunty]

What is petty to one person is quite important to someone else. qapmoc tells us why a headlamp can be important. Fog lights are a nuisance in clear weather, as are the people who don't notice that it is no longer foggy. However, it is unusual for a ticket to be issued for one light out, and I tend to agree that the trainee officer needed to issue this one to tick a box on his assessment. But it was illegal and you have no cause for complaint. Next time your girlfriend should say it was working at the start of the journey; that exemption is built into the law. The incident end box is really for parking offences to prove the length of time that no loading/unloading took place.

[s999srk]

Cheers for your help grunty, cleared it up a bit, didn't know about the exemption before the journey began. Guess i don't have a case for appealing.
qapmoc i'm sorry to hear about your brother in law and wish him the best in his recovery.

[woodchopper]

First question to ask once you got pulled over is - "Which one?" indicating you didn't know about it.
Second, thing to say is that "It was working all right last night/this morning so that it must just have blown"
Thirdly, always carry a spare in your glovebox and pull it out so that you dont give the blighter a chance to give you a ticket. If he does - just remember next time to check your lights more often.

[dan no1]

i've seen a fair few cop cars with their lights not working properly. in my opinion they are pretty pathetic

[s999srk]

Cheers woodchopper, i got her a sparebulb kit yesterday, now bought myself one to. I played dumb when they pulled us over, and said it was serviced last week, which it was.

dan no1, Now you mention it i've seen that also, few months back.