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So I got caught speeding and am within the threshold to expect I should be offered a Safety Awareness Course.

Does anyone know if you are given a choice of dates/venues?

If not, does anyone have any advice on when I should reply to try to get the week beginning 25th May...i.e. how long it usually takes for them to process.

Cheers in advance.

Where did you get caught?  I'm pretty sure that Wiltshire Police don't offer the courses anymore.

Leicester, and they do.  I think getting time of work will be difficult, but am happy to attend the course...just want to get the timing right (which is ironic, because...well, you know).

Yes, you do get a choice of dates and venues.

Great, thanks.

I've been on two. You can pick from a whole host of venues, get online pick an area and away you go. The actual courses are alright, as long as you go in the right frame of mind, which is I got caught, it's a fair cop, as I broke the law. Loads of people go with a massive chip on their shoulder and make themselves look like complete and utter bellends.

It's a fair cop is my attitude. Cheers.

I was caught 18 months ago (just over...35 mph in a 30 mph limit).  Lots of locations to choose from, and didn't even have to book in the county I was caught in.  Where you go is very much up to you, I think.

35 in a 30 seems harsh and I would have contested that. The leeway is usually 10% + 2.

One of the things they may mention on the course is that 'fact' is bollocks. Depends on which constabulary are prosectuting. Hampshire Police confirmed that that's the speed they take action, not the leeway they give you.

You go to the county where you got caught.
Have to say it was OK, a little boring but fairly informative.

Only issue though is that over time the effectiveness wears off.
I got 6 points after mine but now clean again with none over the last 3 years.

They should impose points for drivers crawling along way under the limits as well.
The ones who have their heads glued on and are oblivious to what is going on around them.

Maybe times have changed as people in my course had to attend from the County where they were caught.

I got let off doing 47 in a 30 (late for work..) Same day a colleague got 3 points for 33 in a 30 about a mile away. so I don't believe the 10% thing really.

Definitely changed.

Its a guidline not a rule. Some forces have on occasion have had a zero tolerance policy.

I was done the same 33 in 30.
Sorry but every reason to feel fucked off by that.

There are about a dozen police forces in the UK who are all signed up with some company who do the speed awareness courses.

So if you get done for speeding in an area where the local police force participate in the scheme and you happen to live in an area where your local police force also participate, then you can do a course on your door step even if you got done hundreds of miles away.

In other words, there was some one on my course in Essex who got done in Lincolnshire but because Lincs and Essex Old Bill both participate in the scheme, they could do the course in Essex.

Jan - You're saying you've been on two speed awareness courses? I thought once you'd been on one and you got done again, you wouldn't get the option a second time. The first one doesn't appear to have done much good  8)

Duke - I got done for doing 38 in a 30 but I don't feel fucked off, I broke the speed limit - end of. I just think of all the times over the years when I did much, much worse than that but got away with it. To get done just once in over 20 years and then to get the option of a speed awareness course and no points, is a right result. We all know the rules.

I got done in Southampton, urban area, in 2011, then again on the Severn bridge, just in the 50 coming up to the top. Good news was the welshies wouldn't have known about the Hampshire session, so I was offered another course.

And to be honest it has done me good, I never speed in Towns/residential areas, only on the motorway, I actually asked on the second course if they could convince me that going 80 on a motorway was that bad, and they didn't really give any good reasons.

Got caught in Kent...did mine in Ciren fire station.

Few years back I got done in Somerset and had to do one in bristol.

Agree with you.
I think most offences in residential areas are where speed restrictions come down and thus you need to lower your speed.
Police camera's deliberately target these areas.
Regarding 30 in residential areas I have to say I do drive accordingly.
Motorways I am with you although if you drive past a police car say 75mph I am convinced nothing would happen and I have done this s few times.
I never drive 70 on the motorway thus I am by law always speeding. Now there is the inconsistency.

38 in a 30 limit is more significant than 33 in a 30.
I was always led to believe the 10% tolerance but obviously this does not apply.
Mind you I think a speed awareness course should be mandatory for a first offence with no points.

Apparently for young offenders the speed awareness course is different and more gruesome with more emphasis on real crashes.

Nice to be clean again as they say.
Do you know Jerry's mate Podge, the old boy ?
More speeding fines than anyone. He even booked 3 points against his Wife...........who was dead !!!

Am I the only one here that's never been pulled for speeding?

I average around 25,000 miles a year. Everyone speeds at some point and the more miles you do, the greater the chance you'll be caught occasionally. I'm down to 3 points at the moment, which is the best I've managed for years. The thing I don't understand is moaning about it. You get caught speeding, you're in the wrong. It's pretty straightforward and nobody else's fault.

Agree Hertha, I had never been been caught, but doing over 30,000 miles a year means it's gonna happen, well it will if you do speed a bit. I'll get done on the a34 soon I reckon, just a matter of time.

As I say, if you go over the limit you can't complain. It doesn't matter if you've only gone 'a bit' over. Just think of the times where you've done much worse and got away with it. When you think of it like that you won't feel so bad about it.

Yes I do know Podge and it doesn't surprise me ;)

I just remembered the only other time I got caught speeding. I was on my way back from the Brighton play off debacle. We were nearly home, it was well past midnight and I was on auto pilot. I was going through a small town/village and saw the blue lights in the mirror. I Pulled over and was told that everywhere in that town was a 30mph limit and I had been doing...50...oh dear. They must have just been looking for boy racers (which I clearly wasn't) as they breathalyzed me (it was negative) and sent me on my way. Now that was a result and when I think of that I don't feel bad at all about the one time I actually got done and was given the option of the SAC.

Correct. You just have to take your medicine.

Spot on. Even the Coppers will tell you this.
More miles more risk. Like you I drive around 2000 miles per month.

Beware Botley bridge going Southbound.
A favourite haunt :)

I knew a lawyer who prosecuted for the police once who believed driving at 45 in a 40 approaching a village and slowing down to 35 in the built up area, a 30, and raising your speed to 45 in the 40 on the other side of the village was three speeding offences and ban-able on the 9 penalty point limit that then applied.

Like you (assuming I judge it safe) I generally exceed the speed limit on the motorway and I presume the 60 odd motorway miles I drive to Swindon could see me clocking up scores of speeding offences - and that perhaps half of motorists could be followed on a long trip and smash the points total tally.

This takes me back to when I got done. Really grated me at the time and the speed I was doing in my lorry is now legal too.
Bastards!

The course was totally inappropriate for my case and was designed for car drivers. The knowledge lacking from most of them on the course with me left me wondering how on earth they attained a license. If I got offered another one I would just take the points.