OT Fixed penalty on a foreign licence

Doesn't sound like a problem, more like a getout. Don't know the definitive answer, but I wonder how uk authorities believe they can interfere with a foreign driving licence. DaveK.

They don't 'interfere' with a foreign license per se, but what happens is that a record of that person's driving/conviction history is created and effectively becomes their temporary 'UK' license. Works exactly the same as if they had a UK license - they accumulate 12 points and they get banned from driving in the UK.

I guess there is no escaping justice. After I finish my studies I aim to do a straight swap of my Swiss licence for a UK one (allowed within a year of assuming UK residence). So it will be interesting to see if my new UK licence has 3 points already on it.

Cheers

My understanding is that yes, it would, as the record of your points is kept at DVLA - the same as who will issue your exchange license :-(

Then you must have been driving a UK registered car, otherwise how could they serve a fixed penalty notice on you, they must have had to post it to the registered owners address? To avoid the whole thing get the registered owner to write to them saying you were the person in charge of the vehicle at the time and giving your name and address in CH, they will then write to you there if they are going to try to recover the penlty, In my expereince of many such tickets is mostly they just file them in the rubbish and you will hear no more. My colleague (the registered owner of the car in question) on a couple of occasions did get several threatening scare letters demanding to know details of where and when I entered the country where I was staying etc. but she politly wrote back and informed them that she had given all the information she was required to by law so they could piss off, nothing more has been heard.

Additionally the British cannot impose any sort of penalty on your driving licence, what they can do is issue you with a driving licence number held at the DVLA, this, as yet not issued, licence will accrue however many fixed penalty points they award and if you ever change your Suisse DL back the UK DL should have those points on it.

Theoretically they can ban you from driving in the UK but are not allowed to take your licence away,

good advice. The EU are changing the rules that you do not have to change a member state licence for that of another upon residence and you can have points and be banned on the foreign one in all the EU at the same time.

Got any more info on that Andrew? Here we don't have a points system, such a system would have to be introduced before any EU wide common penalties could work.

AIUI at the moment there are some reciprocal arrangments working in the EU, if you live here for example and get caught in speeding or traffic offensing in the fatherland then they access your details and you get the penalty directly from them and vice versa.

Quite aside from that the OP is not an EU resident.

I have a Cornish friend who lives in America and has both US and UK licences. When he gets pulled over he always pulls out the licence for the country he isn't in at the time ... most cops decide it's too much hassle and let him off!

Al

thanks I spotted that myself!!!! lol

EU full licence holders do not have to exchange their licence now, they can continue to use their country of origin one as long as it is valid which can be confirmed on the DVLA website. The penalties applying to all member states has been mentioned several times in the press as a plan and I read in it a official document that was called something like harmonisation of EU driving licences or some such thing. It is a logical step if you think about it really.

That might be called the EU ;-)

Except that Switzerland isn't in the EU :)

I am actually the registered owner of the car. I drive my GB car both here and in Switzerland since car prices are extortionate over there and a left-hander wouldn't be much use when I eventually returned to the UK. As for the EU issue, Switzerland is not part of the EU otherwise I could drive here indefinitely on my Suisse licence. As it is I have only one year to exchange licences after I repatriate to the UK.

Then complet the ticket giving yourself as the driver with your suisse address, the ball is in their court then and at worst you will be back where you started.

AIUI you are committing an offence by having the car registered to you if you are not resident in the UK, bit of a grey area if you maintain a UK address as well as a Suisse one, where you pay income tax?

And so it panned out that the following script was sculpted by none other than Al Reynolds:

Tsk tsk... one is not supposed to do that. :}

Yeah but they could also X check and find that he's holding a "domestic" licence, you never know. Then sparks might fly. You're not supposed to hold more than one DL in the first place.

And so it panned out that the following script was sculpted by none other than James:

And they should thank their lucky stars for it too.

It's perfectly legal and adequate to have driver licenses from a EU country and a US state. I have had both kinds since 1992 and intend to keep it that way. What is not legal is to have license from two states in the US, or from two different countries in the EU.

And so it panned out that the following script was sculpted by none other than Ignasi Palou-Rivera:

Interesting - I guess I might have to look into that if ever I return to the EU (not going to happen before a HUGE BUCKETLOAD of political reforms take place), because driver's licences have this pesky tendency to expire every few years, and not all EU governments will simply exchange a Canajun (Provincial) licence automatically on application (though I think some will).

The car is registered at my parent's home. Since I am still a student I have never paid income tax so I am not really too clued up on the legal aspects of residency. It is a little grey in that I buy a yearly UK tax disc for the few months of the year I drive in the UK and I am insured on a Green Card from Zurich (CH) which allows me to drive anywhere in Europe.

I'm going to send photocopies of my licence and Log book and see how they wish to proceed. The obvious dilemma for them is that my licence states a Geneva address and my log book a London one. The one person I spoke to who seemed to have a clue suggested that I might need to go to a Magistrates court to sort it out..