[Will Hunt]

Driving back from Earl tonight I was pulled over by the police. Was told that I had no MOT and was given a fixed penalty notice of £60. I explained that I could produce a valid MOT certificate and was told that I could take this to a North Yorkshire police station and get the ticket struck off.

On getting home I've checked the MOT and see where the problem is. The bloke in the garage has recorded the registration plate number on the certificate itself with the last letter wrong. Incidentally he has also recorded it incorrectly on the invoice, only with the last letter correct and the first two wrong instead.

So what can I do about this? The first thing seems to be to go to the garage and give them a bollocking for fucking up the certificate. Will they be able to print me a new one with the correct details there and then? Or will they have to repeat the test? In which case they'd better not try and charge me!

So when I take these documents to the police (which will be an annoying hours round trip), what are the chances of them tearing up the ticket? And if they won't, how do I get the garage to pay it?

And after all this, if the ticket is ripped up then how do I go about getting my details removed from the police database. I have a clean sheet with the plod and I'd like to keep it that way. I've no idea if this is the kind of thing that would show up on a CRB.

[psychomansam]

Talk to the garage and get a written apology to take to the police. Get their phone number to give to the police.

Then go to the police with certificate and explanation and beg like a pauper.

If the charge does stick (utter bollox) I don't see how it would prevent you, say, becoming a teacher. I can only imagine it might be a problem if the CRB-requiring job involves driving.

[slackline]

A quick search for 'crb fixed penalty notice' threw up a few things including this.

[SA Chris]

It's surely clear this is an honest mistake. I wouldn't go and kick up a fuss at the garage, unless the guy gets arsey about it. I'm sure it's something he can fix easily, as I reckon it happens all the time. Take both old and new certificates to police and I'm sure they will understand and cancel ticket.

Unfortunately if they don't I don't think the garage can be held accountable as I suspect it's ultimately your responsibility, not theirs, to make sure the details are correct when you get the certificate back. It sucks, but I suspect that's the case.

[tomtom]

The important thing is that its changed on the database - which I assume the garage can do (seing as that is where its updated)... You may even be able to do it all via phone/letter.. The garage should probably be quite worried about this too - as the MOT MOT inspectors (those that check they are doing their job properly) are a reet bunch of Nazi's and I wouldnt be surprised if this type of mistake is the kind of thing that can get the garage into quite a bit of trouble....

In the old days, no MOT was just a fine, no points - so was never 'as bad' an offence as speeding.

[Will Hunt]

Thanks for the advice all. Went to the garage today and they were very apologetic and did a new MOT on the spot free of charge. Went to see the Police in Skipton and fortunately managed to see the same officer who was helpful and has agreed to have the ticket rescinded.

All in all its just ballache. If the rescinding doesn't go through in the next 20 days then the advice is to pay it anyway and then seek a refund. This will have much less of an impact than if the time to pay elapses and then a whole new line of court summons etc is kicked off by the automated system.
Also, need to contact the MOT database people and correct the mistake. The lady who owns the mystery car with one digit in the registration plate different to mine puts about 3000 miles on the clock of her car every year. She had her MOT done two days before I had the original test done so she suddenly gains 10,000 miles in two days on her MOT certificate! Basically looks like she's clocked the car!

Anyway, thanks again for the advice, Chums.