Last night on a quick trip to Tesco to pick up some beers for the evening, i was pulled over by the Police - the reason being that the Officer said i wasnt wearing my seatbelt - when in actual fact i was - as i always do...
this happenned on Saturday night at the Roundabout on WestBar heading away from the courts at about 8:50PM

i tried to protest my innocence but she wouldnt hear it - and wrote me up a fixed penaltry charge - its not that paying £30 is that much of a bother, but im just so p155ed off that i was given a penalty for something i didnt do...

theres no point taking it to court as it will be her word against mine - and i know who will lose..

is there anything else i can do to protest this out of sheer principle?

Dunno how the hell she could even see to say whether i was or wasnt wearing it anyway - as they were on my passenger side, half a car length back, and it was dark - how the hell would they be able to see that?

what would you do? and has anyone else had the same thing happen to them?

I'd find out where she lived and....








..poo through her letterbox

Well all police cars have video cams in them these days so that will show up what was said in the car if anything, maybe these people can play the system and have a false conversation with eachother to trick the camera, however you say they were on the passenger side and one car back, was this the entire time from the moment they saw you to the point at which they stopped you, because they may have seen you and then followed you for a bit to see if it was just a very short journey and they may have let you off...?

Who knows, you may / may not have been wearing it, not my place to comment but if you contest it I'm sure they will drag the video out and analyze it, make a complaint of harrasment with the police.

Take it to court. If the bizzies cant prove you wern't wearing it then surely they have no case? Beyond all reasonable doubt etc, and once they realise you want to contest it they may drop it anyway. Good luck, I love stories of the little man standing up to the establishment

I always though they had to prove you guilty you don't have to prove your innocence.

i would ask on www.pepipoo.com

Site dedicated to stuff like this

http://www.pepipoo.com/ is your friend - lots of advice here about contesting fixed penalty notices. You need to look at their forum; plenty of step by step information relating to what you will need to do to argue your case

i would ask on www.pepipoo.com

Site dedicated to stuff like this

oops! slow typing on my part :)

...it says on the ticket how to opt for court. You either pay the fine or opt for court.

they've got u by the wotsits haven't they! just wonderin if you were in an area with cctv - maybe worth a try, good luck!

Try writing to the Central Ticket Office at South Yorkshire Police, they used to deal with complaints from members of the public in relation to fixed penalty notices - I think they still do but it'd probably be best if you rang the police switchboard to check (0114 20202020), they might even put you straight through to the Central Ticket Office.

i checked and there is no CCTV that will have caught it, besides, it was probably too dark for it to show up anyway..

thanks to those for the link to pepipoo - will take a look

Well you could listen to all of the above suggestions...but I know what'd be most satisfying....:roll::hihi:

It is normally easy to see from where they were, if you've got a normal car - the silouette of the strap rising up from your shoulder to its fixing point is fairly obvious.... or so the copper said who caught a friend of mine twice in a week in Manchester, both times having just left a petrol station.

Last night on a quick trip to Tesco to pick up some beers for the evening, i was pulled over by the Police - the reason being that the Officer said i wasnt wearing my seatbelt - when in actual fact i was - as i always do...
this happenned on Saturday night at the Roundabout on WestBar heading away from the courts at about 8:50PM

i tried to protest my innocence but she wouldnt hear it - and wrote me up a fixed penaltry charge - its not that paying £30 is that much of a bother, but im just so p155ed off that i was given a penalty for something i didnt do...

theres no point taking it to court as it will be her word against mine - and i know who will lose..

is there anything else i can do to protest this out of sheer principle?

Dunno how the hell she could even see to say whether i was or wasnt wearing it anyway - as they were on my passenger side, half a car length back, and it was dark - how the hell would they be able to see that?

what would you do? and has anyone else had the same thing happen to them?

Yep - had similar - 2 cops on M1 - conveniently lost the video evidence and went in to court on their own orchestrated hearsay which of course always wins.

Cost the crown around 2.5k to enforce a £60 penalty (£180 quid costs) presumably for making the police look idiots but to be fair they had a head start.

P M Me if u can stand the financial losses to preserve your integrity

go to the police station and make a complaint.then go not guilty in court.


www.pepipoo.com

Another thing, I believe that if you go to court then the police don't get the proceeds from any fines, so at least you'd have the satisfaction that the police force wouldn't be getting your money. It certainly works that way for speeding tickets.

And yes, it is the case that magistrates nearly always believe the Police over a normal citizen, because Policemen never lie and are never mistaken. :suspect:

I've never been a fan of these fixed penalty fines. They're an easy way for the police to up their detection rate without much work and of course they get more money the more fines they dish out.

In most circumstances a quiet word with someone who had not got their seatbelt on would do far more to solving the problem than antagonising generally law abiding people by giving them on-the-spot fines. They need our help more than ever these days, and this sort of thing is counterproductive.

They need our help more than ever these days, and this sort of thing is counterproductive.

In the current political climate i dont think that anythoing which raises easy money would be considered counter productive unless it caused a significant backlash.

That is the reason the fines are set at these levels because paying up is so much easier than obtaining justice.

Another thing, I believe that if you go to court then the police don't get the proceeds from any fines, so at least you'd have the satisfaction that the police force wouldn't be getting your money. It certainly works that way for speeding tickets.

And yes, it is the case that magistrates nearly always believe the Police over a normal citizen, because Policemen never lie and are never mistaken. :suspect:

I've never been a fan of these fixed penalty fines. They're an easy way for the police to up their detection rate without much work and of course they get more money the more fines they dish out.

In most circumstances a quiet word with someone who had not got their seatbelt on would do far more to solving the problem than antagonising generally law abiding people by giving them on-the-spot fines. They need our help more than ever these days, and this sort of thing is counterproductive.

what on earth are you talking about??:huh: It matters not whether a fine is paid through the ticket or in court.. the money ends up at the same place, and in either case it doesn't go to the police!!!