Naturalisation and traffic offense

[abhijitg]

Hi,
I am due for my naturalisation and have submitted my details to NCS local council
during my document checking and while filling up the form the person in charged asked me to confirm whether i have any criminal offense to which i said no. he again asked me whether there were any fixed penalty, any speeding record and i remembered immediately that in march 2006 i i had a SP30 offense . i used to travel to work in sheffield from leeds and one day i got this notice that i have broken a speed limit and i was told to submit my driving license counterpart . i did that and after that i moved from my residence to a new one but i used to chase them up every 2-3 weeks but never got a proper response till until 7-8 months when i got a notice from court saying that i need to pay the said penalty. I did that and i received back my paper license with a 3 point penalty. date of offense as 24th march 06 and date of conviction as 19th March 07.
The NCS person in charge told me though its not a criminal offense and its a minor traffic offence i still need to declare it and its upon the home office to decide abt the offense.
my questions are
1) can this hamper my naturalisation application and can it get rejected ?
2) i hv also applied for my wife( she has also completed six years )and my son( he is born in uk). if my application is rejected by any chance will theirs' be rejected as well or they will get their naturalisation and proceed with their citizenship?
3) if my application is rejected when can i apply again? i.e completion of 5 yrs from the date of offense or 5 yrs from the date of conviction?
Can you please let me know. The NCS is going to hold my application until friday before sending frwd. i also tried to contact the home office but unable to get thru their telephone line.
Regards
Abhijit

[senthil78]

Hi,
I am due for my naturalisation and have submitted my details to NCS local council
during my document checking and while filling up the form the person in charged asked me to confirm whether i have any criminal offense to which i said no. he again asked me whether there were any fixed penalty, any speeding record and i remembered immediately that in march 2006 i i had a SP30 offense . i used to travel to work in sheffield from leeds and one day i got this notice that i have broken a speed limit and i was told to submit my driving license counterpart . i did that and after that i moved from my residence to a new one but i used to chase them up every 2-3 weeks but never got a proper response till until 7-8 months when i got a notice from court saying that i need to pay the said penalty. I did that and i received back my paper license with a 3 point penalty. date of offense as 24th march 06 and date of conviction as 19th March 07.
The NCS person in charge told me though its not a criminal offense and its a minor traffic offence i still need to declare it and its upon the home office to decide abt the offense.
my questions are
1) can this hamper my naturalisation application and can it get rejected ?
2) i hv also applied for my wife( she has also completed six years )and my son( he is born in uk). if my application is rejected by any chance will theirs' be rejected as well or they will get their naturalisation and proceed with their citizenship?
3) if my application is rejected when can i apply again? i.e completion of 5 yrs from the date of offense or 5 yrs from the date of conviction?
Can you please let me know. The NCS is going to hold my application until friday before sending frwd. i also tried to contact the home office but unable to get thru their telephone line.
Regards
Abhijit

Your conviction will not stop your wife and kid becoming british citizen. Their application will be approved even if your application is rejected and if they are eligible.

[dimi]

I posted this in another thread but feel it will be more appropriate here.
********

I have a dilema here.
3 years ago I have been cought speeding, I got a letter saying that if I had a UK licence I can pay a fine if I hold a foreign licence I need to do nothing and the matter will be taken to a court. since then I have never heard anything from the court. Thus I don't know if I actually have a conviction or not, I asked for PNC record via Data Protection Act, but not sure if this offence/charge will actually be recorded there.
so the questions are
a) what happened to my court case (forgotten about, convicted without informing me, etc)
b) do I have to declare it, and if yes what do I declare?
c) If it is not on PNC how to find out what actually happened?

Please share any personal expiriences if anyone was told they will be taken to court but then herd nothing.

[Backer]

Dimi - Do you now have a UK driving license?
The reason for asking is if it is without any points your case probably didn't go to court

[mrlookforward]

I posted this in another thread but feel it will be more appropriate here.
********

I have a dilema here.
3 years ago I have been cought speeding, I got a letter saying that if I had a UK licence I can pay a fine if I hold a foreign licence I need to do nothing and the matter will be taken to a court. since then I have never heard anything from the court. Thus I don't know if I actually have a conviction or not, I asked for PNC record via Data Protection Act, but not sure if this offence/charge will actually be recorded there.
so the questions are
a) what happened to my court case (forgotten about, convicted without informing me, etc)
b) do I have to declare it, and if yes what do I declare?
c) If it is not on PNC how to find out what actually happened?

Please share any personal expiriences if anyone was told they will be taken to court but then herd nothing.

I could write pages of all the things that might have possibly happened, but it would be better if you pls let me know a few things.

Can you please clarify if you held a UK driving license at the time of offence?

Did you move house after getting that letter, if you did move, after how long?

Do you hold a UK driving license now? if yes, when was it first issued.

PS: By driver license I mean to ask any UK driving license, doesnt matter even if its provisional.

[dimi]

I posted this in another thread but feel it will be more appropriate here.
********

I have a dilema here.
3 years ago I have been cought speeding, I got a letter saying that if I had a UK licence I can pay a fine if I hold a foreign licence I need to do nothing and the matter will be taken to a court. since then I have never heard anything from the court. Thus I don't know if I actually have a conviction or not, I asked for PNC record via Data Protection Act, but not sure if this offence/charge will actually be recorded there.
so the questions are
a) what happened to my court case (forgotten about, convicted without informing me, etc)
b) do I have to declare it, and if yes what do I declare?
c) If it is not on PNC how to find out what actually happened?

Please share any personal expiriences if anyone was told they will be taken to court but then herd nothing.

I could write pages of all the things that might have possibly happened, but it would be better if you pls let me know a few things.

Can you please clarify if you held a UK driving license at the time of offence?

Did you move house after getting that letter, if you did move, after how long?

Do you hold a UK driving license now? if yes, when was it first issued.

PS: By driver license I mean to ask any UK driving license, doesnt matter even if its provisional.

Thanks,
I haven't had a UK driving licence at that time.
I don't have a UK driving licence now, I simply stoped driving soonafter the accident.
I moved house a year later, but this was my sisters house and she would know if there was a letter for me or if cops wanted to serv me with summons.

I read on one of the transport forums, that cops have 6 months to take up matter in court, if they fail then they give up.
On the other hand something similar happened to my brother in law, he never heard anything from a court but when he got his UK licence he already had points on it, yet again he dosen't know if it went to court or not.

[mrlookforward]

OK, I got the picture now.
Now if police actually took you to court, and somehow summons got lost in post, you might have already been convicted in court for overspeeding. If you were not doing some silly dangerous speed, this conviction wont be a bar to your naturalisation.
Now where it gets tricky is that you dont know if you were convicted or not. It might be the case, that you offence got lost in the police system or the police officer dealing with you case never bothered to charge you at all. If you were not charged at all, then all good and well, youe can forget about the incident. If you were convicted and you dont declare it in your application, then you will be refused for using deception.

The straightforward way to deal with this situation is, go to the local magistrates court. I meant the court of the place you were overspeeding. Ask them if they have any fines registered against you. If there are any fines registered, then you know you had a conviction. They can give you all the details, such as date of conviction etc.

You can also check this online by going to trust online here http://www.rtlproduction.com/Search.aspx

Dont search with your current address. You must use the address at which you got letter from police alleging overspeeding. There are nine streams of information you can search, but thes ones relevant to you are : England and Wales Orders & Judgments, and England and Wales Fine Defaults.

[dimi]

Thanks mrlookforward,

I will contact Criminal Justice Unit and try to get them to confirm if it went to a court and what court it went to (or if they not sure, what court it should have gone to). Then will try to get the info from the court.
Another thin, I wonder how does HO find out someone has a motoring conviction if it is not recorded on PNC? They must make a request to some agency that holds register of both recordable (as on PNC) and non-recordable convictions. I don’t assume they enquire in every magistrate’s court in the country. So the question is what agency will hold records on minor traffic convictions given in court and does such an agency actually exist? Or they just relay on your disclosure and then do a PNC check?

[mrlookforward]

There is nothing known as criminal justice unit, its called HMCS. You should only contact the local magistrates court where the offence was committed. I also mentioned a website where you can find out if you have any unpaid fines. You can enter your details and the address of the place where you lived when you received those letters from the police. By paying £20 you can have the information in one minute, without running around and contacting anyone. Most traffic offences are not on PNC as they are not recordable offences, but then in a way they are on PNC. Confusiing, isnt it. Let me clafiry. All the traffic offences, convictions or fixed penalty notices, get recorded onto DVLA computer records. PNC has a link to DVLA computer records and this way traffic offences are revealed. Its not necessary at all to have a UK driving license to have the DVLA record. It can be there with just your name and date of birth.

[dimi]

There is nothing known as criminal justice unit, its called HMCS. You should only contact the local magistrates court where the offence was committed. I also mentioned a website where you can find out if you have any unpaid fines. You can enter your details and the address of the place where you lived when you received those letters from the police. By paying £20 you can have the information in one minute, without running around and contacting anyone. Most traffic offences are not on PNC as they are not recordable offences, but then in a way they are on PNC. Confusiing, isnt it. Let me clafiry. All the traffic offences, convictions or fixed penalty notices, get recorded onto DVLA computer records. PNC has a link to DVLA computer records and this way traffic offences are revealed. Its not necessary at all to have a UK driving license to have the DVLA record. It can be there with just your name and date of birth.

that is the whole thin, I don't think I have an unpaid fine. If i had an unpaid fine they would surely sent me a number of enforsment letters and then bailifs would be knocking on my (in this case my sisters) door. Is it possible the that they convicted me and only gave 3 points on my "virtual" UK licence?

[mrlookforward]

Nope, either you have nothing against you or you have both.

[mrlookforward]

dimi,
Are you living in poverty that you cant spend £20 to do a simple check online and be sure, rather than asking questions and then throwing a counter question when someone replies to your query? According to your last post, you seem sure you have nothing registered against you. Then why are you asking questions?

[dimi]

dimi,
Are you living in poverty that you cant spend £20 to do a simple check online and be sure, rather than asking questions and then throwing a counter question when someone replies to your query? According to your last post, you seem sure you have nothing registered against you. Then why are you asking questions?

Thank you for your help mrlookforward, I followed your advise.
I am asking questions because I am Paranoid, and also stakes are too high. I have checked the website and there is nothing on me. I have also contacted DVLA and they have no record or points against my name and just to be 101% sure I have phoned up Central Accounting Office of HMCS and they have no fines against my name.

[mrlookforward]

Well done dimi, its always better to take action and ascertain your situation rather than just getting stressed about it. Now you have made your enquiries and you have got all clear, bang your application in when you want to.