Author Topic: Totting Up on Provisional and License details delay  (Read 815 times)

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Totting Up on Provisional and License details delay
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Hi, I’m looking for some advice about my dad’s driving license situation. He came to the UK and during his first year drove on his Indian license, during which he unfortunately received 9 points. Then in November 2024, while driving on his UK provisional license, he got another speeding ticket (3 points), which would take him to 12 points and potentially trigger a totting-up ban. We paid the £100 fine online and sent his license details by post as requested.

A few months later, we got a letter saying the documents weren’t clear and asking us to resend them with a photocopy, which we did using next-day tracked delivery. Since then, we’d been waiting for the court letter regarding the totting up. But last week we got an email saying the £100 fine had been refunded. When I contacted them, they said a court letter would follow because they claim we didn’t provide the license details.

We’ve now found the posting receipt, and the tracking shows it was posted around 17th March but marked as delayed, with the last update on 8th April. We’re now unsure what to do—we’ve done everything we could to comply and have proof we sent it, but it looks like the post was delayed.

We also don’t fully understand how the totting-up process works, especially since my dad is on a provisional license. From what we’ve read, if a driver gets 12 points within 3 years, they face a minimum 6-month disqualification unless they can prove exceptional hardship. We contacted a local solicitor, and they said there would be a duty solicitor at court, but we don’t know what to expect or how best to prepare. Any advice on how to handle this and whether we should get our own solicitor would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: Totting Up on Provisional and License details delay
« Reply #1 on: »
The fixed penalty process is irrelevant. The "condition" in the Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty is that he would not be liable to tot up - so whatever he did, he would not be able to discharge liability for the offence through the fixed penalty scheme.

He will presumably receive a Single Justice Procedure Notice offering him the choice of pleading not guilty, guilty to be dealt with on the papers, or guilty to be dealt with by a court hearing. Assuming that he is pleading guilty, the case will end up with a court hearing anyway which he will be required to attend as the court will be obliged to disqualify him for 6 months unless he can persuade them that on the balance of probabilities such a ban would cause exceptional hardship (beyond the hardship that such a ban would cause the average person). They will give him the opportunity to present any such argument, and as a ban comes into effect immediately when sentence is passed, the court will want to ensure that he knows that he is banned, and what the consequences of driving when banned would be.

As regards special reasons not to endorse, if you feel that he has grounds for such an argument, we would be happy to offer advice as to how to present them, but do NOT ask us for examples of good grounds for special reasons not to endorse.
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Re: Totting Up on Provisional and License details delay
« Reply #2 on: »
Quote
We contacted a local solicitor, and they said there would be a duty solicitor at court,...

There may well be. But the solicitor should know that your father will not be able to take advantage of his or her services. The duty solicitor is only available to defendants appearing for the first time and facing a charge which can carry a prison sentence on conviction.

Re: Totting Up on Provisional and License details delay
« Reply #3 on: »
Quote
We contacted a local solicitor, and they said there would be a duty solicitor at court,...

There may well be. But the solicitor should know that your father will not be able to take advantage of his or her services. The duty solicitor is only available to defendants appearing for the first time and facing a charge which can carry a prison sentence on conviction.
Oh, do you think we need to get a solicitor at all? Or will it be just a ban with no complicated processes? What can we expect to happen on the day

Re: Totting Up on Provisional and License details delay
« Reply #4 on: »
The process is no complicated. Following his guilty plea Your father will have points imposed that take his total to twelve. The court will ask him if he intends to make an "exceptional hardship" argument. If he does not they will disqualify him from driving for six months.

Does he intend making an exceptional hardship argument.