Advice on handling a speeding ticket that was never sent

Hi all,
I was recently notified by my insurance company on 21 August 2026 while renewing my insurance that there was a discrepancy on my driving record and on checking online I apparently have an unpaid speeding ticket and 3 points issued on 14 October 2025 that falls under the jurisdiction of Nottinghamshire Magistrates Court (date of conviction 20 April 2026).

I did not receive any communication about this and on reviewing my records I am not sure how this happened, as I normally live in Leicester and had no reason to be going to Nottingham on that day. I do not have a case number on hand as I never received a court summons, NIP or S172 notice.

I have called the Leicester speed camera team and the SJS line at Nottingham Magistrates Court on Friday and was advised that they were unable to find any records of speeding tickets or court proceedings under my name or car registration. Similarly, the Nottingham speed camera team have now emailed me to say that they have no records of any speeding offense. I have now emailed Nottingham Magistrates Court to request written confirmation that they have no records of any case under my name.

In this situation, how would you advise that I proceed?

I was recently notified by my insurance company on 21 August 2026 while renewing my insurance that there was a discrepancy on my driving record and on checking online I apparently have an unpaid speeding ticket and 3 points issued on 14 October 2025 that falls under the jurisdiction of Nottinghamshire Magistrates Court (date of conviction 20 April 2026).

As it was 3 points (as opposed to 6 points for failing to furnish) it seems likely your DL has been incorrectly endorsed - either deliberately (fraudulently) or by error (matched the wrong DL).

All roads seem to lead, for now, to the MC as they would have actioned the endorsement with the DVLA.


(If you have been convicted in absence then promptly applying for a Statutory Declaration would be of paramount importance)

Has nobody been in touch with you since then to try to collect the fine/costs etc?

No - my insurance company notifying me was the first time hearing about all of this. I'm not even sure if I was in Notts at the time as I don't normally travel there - I did have plans to see a friend there around that time but didn't end up going as she cancelled it.

I think your next stop must be the DVLA.

I seems strange that your insurers know the details of this but the court that allegedly convicted you doesn’t. You need to ask the DVLA who told them to endorse your licence.

I don’t think a Statutory Declaration will be the way to go unless and until you discover the court details. A court will not accept a declaration from you to say you knew nothing about a conviction which nobody else seems to know anything about either.

I’m just trying to think through what might have happened if this was a case of fraud. Somebody would have to have received a request for driver’s details, named you, but at their address. Then, if they (or rather you) were offered a fixed penalty, they must have accepted it in your name. But to do that they would need your DL details.

Seems a bit of a rigmarole to go through (coupled with the risk of an allegation of attempting to pervert the course of justice)  to avoid three points and a hundred quid. It’s all a bit odd.

We have seen similar previously. I can't recall ever seeing a resolution - or perhaps more importantly I can't recall anything which illustrated a simple resolution that didn't involve the OP banging their head against several brick walls, whilst dealing with seemingly intransigent public bodies.

Working backwards, logically, somebody (a court or fixed penalty clerk) has instructed the DVLA to endorse a licence with 3 points. Who that was and what information was provided is something that the DVLA would be best placed to answer - if it were not for the fact that they are more intransigent than HMCTS.

As regards a stat. dec. - technically it is not applicable if *you* were not convicted. However, if we were at the point where it was established to the satisfaction of all parties that court X convicted "you", and that was the only way to get the case re-opened, I would consider it to be the only option, other than the appeal of last resort (Judicial Review).

There is potential for distinctions to tread worrying close to FMOTL bollox - if the OP's name is fraudulently provided, when does the name equate to the person? IMHO when the information provided meant that the DVLA had no choice but to endorse the OP's licence (as opposed to same/similar name, close enough, not my problem).

On the basis that intransigence might result in having to lodge an out of time appeal of some description, I would suggest that it is more important than in most cases where it is already important that the OP keeps a contemporaneous diary of all communications in respect of this matter. And is as proactive as is reasonably conducive to retaining sanity.

Thanks - it all does seem a little bizarre. I have been on the DVLA webchat all day today and didn't get very far other than the same suggestion to contact the Nottingham Magistrates Court.

Regarding the fraud angle, I suppose it is possible - I was going through a bad breakup at the time and it's possible that my ex's sister could have done all that to spite me, and she would have had access to a copy of my driving license as I had used it as proof of ID to apply to be her guarantor.

Regarding the fraud angle, I suppose it is possible - I was going through a bad breakup at the time and it's possible that my ex's sister could have done all that to spite me, and she would have had access to a copy of my driving license as I had used it as proof of ID to apply to be her guarantor.

...Well that's taken a very dark turn!  It would be a monumentally stupid thing for them to do as it could involve jail time if convicted of PCoJ. (As doesn't seem too hard to chase the evidence trail)

As noted, above it may be a frustrating process as the DVLA and MC may well point at each other...

Finding out for certain whether you were actually convicted in absence would be a significant breakthrough.

But if an endorsement with a convicting court is present then putting it out there, would performing a SD potentially flush out issues, one way or another?

N.B. Started typing this a few posts ago...

For the sake of completeness, unless there has been an almighty snafu, 3 points for speeding do not get put on your licence unless someone has given what would appear to be your details, as their own details, as driver.

For speeding, either the driver is stopped at the time by the police and gives their details (or potentially someone else's), or a NIP with s. 172 requirement to name the driver is sent to the RK. If the RK is not the driver, they nominate the driver (or keeper), who receives their own notice, until the recipient responds admitting to being the driver.

Your driver record on the DVLA portal should show the convicting court code (off the top of my head, not sure whether this would be the same code for a fixed penalty processed by the Fixed Penalty Clerk) - but a fixed penalty would be £100 and the chances of a fine being exactly £100 are slim.

Conventional wisdom suggests that unless a person holds a foreign licence, it should not be possible to accept a fixed penalty without providing their licence number and date of birth (which is trivially encoded into the licence number).

<mod hat on>
Before we descend any further into rabbit holes of speculation, it would seem to be prudent for the OP to confirm whether the fine amount was £100 on their driver record, and any other information that might be relevant (without unnecessarily disclosing sensitive identifiable personal information
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If it helps:
Offence code: SP30
* Offence: Exceeding statutory speed limit on a public road
* Penalty points: 3 points
* Offence date: 14 October 2025
* Conviction date: 20 April 2026
* Penalty points expiry date: 14 October 2028
* Endorsement removal date: 14 October 2029
* Fine: £220
* Court: Nottinghamshire Magistrates’ Court
* Current driving status: Full UK driving licence
* Total endorsements: 1 offence, 3 points

So you know the conviction date but Nottingham Magistrates court has no record of it?

Presumably they checked by your name

Do you have a very common name which could be confused with somebody else's?

Have they checked by your DL number?

Yes, but it was over the phone, which is why I have written to them for further information.

£220 is not a fixed penalty. It is exactly the fine you would expect for a Band A offence (see Mags' Sentencing Guidelines) with no discount for a guilty plea (e.g. SJPN ignored) and an assumed RWI of £440 (no statement of means submitted).

This is consistent (but not conclusive) with someone naming (and purporting to be) you in response to a NIP addressed to you, and then burying their head in the sand when an SJPN arrived in your name.

Absent compelling reasons to the contrary, speeding cases should be heard at the court nearest to the offence, or a "linked court". Not sure whether the SJPN process would be an exception to this (it is not a conventional hearing).

Unless the DVLA have managed to outdo themselves on this occasion, an order for endorsement under your name (whether purporting to be you or someone else with the same name) came from Nottinghamshire Magistrates' Court on April 20th. Other than similarly not being fit for purpose, it is inexplicable (and/or unacceptable) that they are unable to find any record of that.

*If* the court are that incompetent, what can we be sure of?

Logically, either the court have f*cked up, or the DVLA have. Have you asked the DVLA webchat people if they have access to the instruction from the court? Did it have your correct and full name, date of birth and driver number?

Going back to the spite angle, would your ex have had access to the property when a NIP would have arrived (within 14 days of the date of offence if it was your vehicle and you are/were the RK with up to date details)? Unless paperwork sent to you as RK was intercepted, there is every reason to believe that your vehicle was not involved in the offence.

Interesting.
For the record - I have discussed with the police and my car has never had any speeding tickets recorded in Nottingham/Leicester, so clearly the ticket was incurred on a different car.

My best guess is that my ex's sister incurred a speeding ticket in her own car (as while my ex didn't have a car at the time, her sister had a car with her partner), named me as the driver (possibly with partial information) when the NIP arrived and stated that all further correspondence should be directed to her address, and ignored all subsequent correspondence. The police don't seem too convinced about this angle (not least because I don't know her full address/car reg) because in theory I should have received a notice if she did so.

I guess the remaining options now would be to try and chase the MC for a case number under the assumption that the address they may have on file for me is wrong, or alternatively to try and get the DVLA to dig up further details about the court instruction?

If the DVLA are being helpful (which I believe is one of the signs of an impending apocalypse), then I would be minded to try to get as much info from them as possible - to try to narrow down exactly what info was provided by the court - before asking the court again.

A question that the webchat people would probably need to escalate is what they (the DVLA) would require (presumably from the court) in order to rescind the endorsement applied in response to an ostensibly lawful instruction from the court.