Speeding fines

[Mustang]

Has anyone seen any anouncement that speeding fines are now earnings related and no longer fixed penalty? A guy I am working with got a speeding fine and found this out. Turns out it wasn't his car anyway - he was on a course at the time and could prove it!

Why should I pay more for a fine just because I earn more? If I was on benefits, have I committed less of a crime?!
Bl**dy typical!!

[Paddy]

Sounds like twaddle

[VectraMan]

I earn minimum wage, so no problem there.

I think fines where you go to court were always like this, and fines where the cameras get you are just a fixed fee.

[gingerjedi]

In some cases it is only fair, why should a footballer on 80k a week pay a £400 fine and get a 12 month ban when he raps his Bentley round a lampost cos' he was pissed when all he has to do is buy another one and hire a driver?

[PRC1964]

Because that is the tariff laid down by law. If the footballer can afford it then good for him. Or maybe you think he should be charged more when he buys petrol/eggs/TV licence etc.

[DimPrawn]

Yes everything should be priced according to what you can afford.

This should be the next piece of New Lie legislation.

In this way, the underclasses can all live in big expensive houses and drive luxury cars.

Comrade, why should the poor not be able to afford what the rich have?

[gingerjedi]

Because that is the tariff laid down by law. If the footballer can afford it then good for him. Or maybe you think he should be charged more when he buys petrol/eggs/TV licence etc.

Rubbish, its meant to be a penalty, a puishment something that would make him think about what he has done, not just the equivelent of the change he could find down the back of his Italian sofa.

[oraclesmith]

Fines are a bad way of administering justice. Back in the days where everyone had a relatively fixed position in society they made sense, but nowadays they don't.

In my opinion it would be better to replace all fines with unpaid work for the community, that way people would be able to discharge their debt to society in a practical and cathartic manner.

[Churchill]

In my opinion it would be better to replace all fines with unpaid work for the community, that way people would be able to discharge their debt to society in a practical and cathartic manner.

Or they could pay someone else to do the work for them...

[threaded]

No, no, you've got it all backwards. Back in the day fines were something quite different. Actually, back in the middle ages, I think the concept you refer to were a way for the Crown to raise money.

You wanted to eat meat? Well, as long as you paid the "appraised value" (taxation) of the game you took from the kings forest you could. Luckily for poor people there was an upper limit on this appraisal which was called the "fine".

Incidentally the concept of a poacher way more modern. In fact I don't think the word even existed pre-reformation.