Bad advice from TTC - received court summons

[JEC1965]

I will try and keep this brief, a bit complicated.

 

I received an offer of a speed awareness course for a speeding offence on 2nd december 2013.

 

Course was booked for 18th february 2014. i couldn't make it so rang TTC and re-arranged for 20th march and paid an admin fee to re-book.

 

On the day of the course my car broke down and I couldn't attend.

i rang TTC and they said they would contact the police and request an extension and try and re-book me on another course.

 

They rang me back and offered me another course on 23rd April and asked me send in proof of my breakdown

to avoid paying another admin fee which i did.

 

I received confirmation of the new course by e-mail.

 

They rang a week later to say they had not received the proof and wanted me to re-send it or pay another fee.

 

i said I would contact insurance company to see if I could get proof but with no luck.

 

in the meantime i received a conditional offer of fixed penalty from the police.

 

I rang TTC and told them i had received this and he said to ignore it as he had requested my file back from them.

 

I was still getting nowhere with getting the proof and they were asking for another payment.

 

i was being passed from pillar to post and in the end i said i was sick of all the messing about

and said I would rather just pay the fine.

 

he said he would send my file back to the police and refund the fees I had paid.

 

I asked what i should do about paying the fine and he said to just wait for the police to contact me again.

 

i have now received a summons to go to court and don't know what to do.

 

i feel i was given bad advice by TTC in telling me to ignore the letter from the police

and I am now wondering if they did actually get my file back from the police at all.

 

Has anyone got any advice on what i can do.

 

Can I avoid going to court.

 

I will no doubt have to pay a bigger fine than first offered which i can not afford.

 

I have rang TTc and they say there is nothing they can do even though they admitted it was all in the notes.

[caro]

You could put in a defence and SAR TTC to get the notes as evidence to support it. This probably wouldn't avoid court but may minimise any fine.

[Conniff]

So why can't you send a copy of the proof of breakdown that you sent them the first time?

[JEC1965]

I couldn't send it as i didn't keep a copy and he wanted me to pay another £45.00 on top of the £130 I had already paid so i said I would rather pay the £100 fine. They were messing me about one minute saying they had got my file back from the police then saying they had requested it and were waiting to hear from them. Its the fact they told me to ignore the letter from the police that i am annoyed about.

[caro]

I couldn't send it as i didn't keep a copy and he wanted me to pay another £45.00 on top of the £130 I had already paid so i said I would rather pay the £100 fine. They were messing me about one minute saying they had got my file back from the police then saying they had requested it and were waiting to hear from them. Its the fact they told me to ignore the letter from the police that i am annoyed about.

 

Sar them and you should get all you need for a tenner.