What on earth is happening with the speed cameras lately?!

Ok, I am a new UK Yankee here in England for only 9mths now. As such, I have not yet ventured into the world of UK licenses, I am still driving on my FL license and had planned to for the duration of my stay (2yrs total). This week, however, I received a letter in the mail after being pinched by a speed camera for doing 40 in a 30. First, I thought I was in a 40...second, the letter is addressed to my husband (who owns the car) but I was the one driving. I am trying to figure out how to deal with this since I don't have a paper UK license. I have another American friend here who has been dealing with the same issue (also here less then a year) and was told she needed to send her passport in the mail to a far away place to receive apply for her UK license. She was also told to write a letter off to the Central Ticket Office and they would send her a court date so the judge could decide what to do.

Questions are: What the heck do I do now that I have this letter?
                       How do I pay the fine without a UK license?
                       Would I be able to take some kind of course to drop the points?
I am at a bit of a loss here over the next step and I am concerned that I will have to send away my passport with a trip to Norway coming up in June.

I would appreciate any help and guidance on the subject, Thanks!

Errmm..this isn't going to be popular but..

You could just try sticking to the speed limit.

I was just thinking the exact same thing. My dh drives faster than is safe more often than not. I for one am quite happy that speed cameras exist. In my opinion people underestimate the danger of speeding....

I was also a big fan of red light cameras in SF - I can't begin to tell you how many times I started to cross the street and nearly got ploughed down by some idiot running a light that had just turned red. 

eagleray- i would recommend going to this forum... http://www.pepipoo.com/

a few more things.  once you had been in the UK for a year, your US licence is no long valid. you will find that you will still be able to use it as ID, and get car insurance etc.  however, if you were to get into a major accident there is the danger that your insurer could deny your claim b/c you were driving on an invalid licence.  i'm not scare mongering here- just telling you what could happen.

i recieved two tickets while i was here the first year.  i was still legally driving on my US licence.  both times i wrote them a letter stating that i was here on temp. assignment, and i sent in a copy of my us licence.  one time i heard nothing back (they took one look at the foreign licence and got confused).  the other time, i recieved a letter back stating that since i couldn't use their fixed penalty form, the matter would need to be referred to the magistrates (local court).  a few months later i recieved a form asking how i wanted to plead, which was guilty.  then a few weeks later i recieved a notice that i had been found guilty and i was asked to pay a fine.  at no time did i need to go to court, etc. 

my rec: since the letter is addressed to your husband, legally he must fill it in.  he should nominate YOU as the driver.  you will then get your own form.  then you can decide if you want to plead guilty/not guilty.   

Eagleray -- you say you have been in the UK for nine months, right? So, you're still legally permitted to drive on your US license. But bear in mind that, as meggles states, you'll only be able to do that for another three months. You may want to think about biting the bullet and taking your test to get a UK license. Or ... and this is entirely up to you ... risking it and driving illegally on your US license. I wouldn't recommend that, but it has been done.

When you get stopped by a speed camera, the camera detects the car. The car is obviously registered to your husband, which is why he got the letter. As Meggles said, he'll need to fill in the form and post it back stating (in the space provided) that you were the driver. You'll then get a form of your own in the post. At that time, you'll need to let them know that you're driving legally on a US license.

If you later decide to get a UK license, then the points you were given for this infraction will transfer over automatically to your new UK license. You'll have to be very careful from then on out (for your final year in the UK) because I believe that as a new driver you can only get two infractions before losing your license.

If, however, you decide to risk it and not get a UK license ... I'm guessing nothing will happen. Anyone?

I agree that everyone should have a valid license (UK or otherwise). I for one would be pretty upset if someone ran into me and they had no insurance, therefore causing me to make a claim against myself ASSUMING I had fully comp insurance.

Do not under estimate the insurance companies. They can null and void your insurance, and THEY DO more often than you think, for lack of a license, MOT, etc. and I would expect that the police would charge them driving without insurance. The courts can impose up to £5,000 fine, discretion ban and 6-8 penalty points for driving without insurance. 

Belindaloo is correct that 6 penalty points and you are back to square one.

I am sure there are forms of redressing my claim through some sort of civil action.

I have known people to accept the penality of behalf another. The husband has 9 points and gets flashed and the wife, with 0 points says she was driving thereby defering a 12 point ban for the husband. It is illegal so I can't recommend it. Depending on the type of camera, the driver may appear in the photograph. It just isn't worth it.

 

I have known people to accept the penality of behalf another. The husband has 9 points and gets flashed and the wife, with 0 points says she was driving thereby defering a 12 point ban for the husband. It is illegal so I can't recommend it. Depending on the type of camera, the driver may appear in the photograph. It just isn't worth it.

DH and I were up in Scotland a few months ago, and we rented a car since we were going to be there for about a week.  I had put it under my name.  We got flashed by a speed camera, and the letter came addressed to me.  I think they were pissed off when I sent them my US license details; so they reviewed the photo.  Of course, they sent us a copy of the photo, with DH driving.  The follow-up letter that accompanied the photo was pretty funny.  It said something like:  You are a female.  The driver is clearly a male.

DH and I were up in Scotland a few months ago, and we rented a car since we were going to be there for about a week.  I had put it under my name.  We got flashed by a speed camera, and the letter came addressed to me.  I think they were pissed off when I sent them my US license details; so they reviewed the photo.  Of course, they sent us a copy of the photo, with DH driving.  The follow-up letter that accompanied the photo was pretty funny.  It said something like:  You are a female.  The driver is clearly a male.

      

Always request a copy of the photo before you fill in the forms and post them back. That way you know exactly what sort of photo they have and whether or not they can tell who's driving. They have to supply you with a copy of the photo if you ask for one.

Thanks all for your replies. I will take responsibility sort it out then try to get a valid uk license. You were helpful indeed!