Hi, i am new to the forum and dont know were to post this, but here goes, i drove without a taco on one day with only 7 hours rest, the following week i did the same, i know silly me but i am new to driving and i was trying to make time back, anyway i got caught by vosa on a yard check and i went to court last week, first time in court fined £1.485.00 seems high when a car driver drivers without insurance, can i appeal against the high fine ■■ any help would be nice
paulandlinda:
Hi, i am new to the forum and dont know were to post this, but here goes, i drove without a taco on one day with only 7 hours rest, the following week i did the same, i know silly me but i am new to driving and i was trying to make time back, anyway i got caught by vosa on a yard check and i went to court last week, first time in court fined £1.485.00 seems high when a car driver drivers without insurance, can i appeal against the high fine ■■ any help would be nice
Hi mate,
Sorry to hear of such a high fine, but let’s just see…
You knew it was wrong AND you did it twice, so my guess is that the Court has been guided by the sentencing guidelines and your fine is therefore most probably correct. 
I’m struggling to understand what you mean by “i was trying to make time back” because you’ll already know that it’s not possible to do that.
The punishment for driving without insurance isn’t really comparable to your situation because it’s a different law.
You would have got a fine AND points on your licence for driving without insurance, but you got no points for the offences in question.
IMHO, you already knew it was wrong, but you’ve just learned how wrong and how seriously the Courts take it.
Sorry, but whether anybody (includes you and I) agrees won’t make any difference, so my best advice is to accept it and do your best to avoid a repeat. At the same time, please think yourself (relatively) lucky to have been dealt with in the UK because the fines for this can be much steeper in other EU countries.
Pay up, and wise up.
You knew it was wrong you’ve been done give your licence back and find something simpler to do like crossing patrol 
Thanks for your replys,time to pay up and learn, lesson learnt
During DCPC courses I always try to point out what the penalties/sanctions are for various offences and state examples of cases - yours will become one of my examples 
However - I get quite a lot of drivers who basically say I am ■■■■■■■■■■■■ and DVSA don’t do this and you can get away with this etc. that doesn’t help me try and get across to the newer drivers just how serious it can be.
Unfortunately you have found out the hard way just how serious it can become for what seems like minor offences. I would not suggest appealing would be worthwhile.
Unfortunately and to be honest with you, you have been fortunate if this is all that happens. You may find you will now come to the attention of the Traffic Commissioners and face a possible suspension of your vocational licence as well, possibly 4 weeks per offence. Sorry but that’s how it works.
A prosecution also hits your operators (at the time) ‘O’ licence (OCRS) quite heavily and that might not go down well if it draws attention to the operator - which, again being honest could yet happen, with the operator called in to see the Traffic Commissioner to discuss how they let you commit these offences
Unfortunately this is how it works. It all sounds extremely over the top compared to other types of offences but that’s the industry you are in.