Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988

71 Registration of sums payable in default

(1) Where the clerk to the justices for a petty sessions area receives a registration certificate issued under section 70 of this Act in respect of any sum payable in default, he must, subject to subsection (4) below, register that sum for enforcement as a fine in that area by entering it in the register of a magistrates' court acting for that area.

(2) Where the clerk of a court of summary jurisdiction receives a registration certificate issued under section 70 of this Act in respect of any sum payable in default, he must, subject to subsection (4) below, register that sum for enforcement as a fine by that court.

(3) Where—

(a) the fixed penalty notice in question was given to the defaulter under section 54 of this Act in respect of an offence committed in Scotland, and

(b) the defaulter appears to the fixed penalty clerk to reside within the jurisdiction of the court of summary jurisdiction of which he is himself the clerk,

the fixed penalty clerk must register the sum payable in default for enforcement as a fine by that court.

(4) Where it appears to the clerk receiving a registration certificate issued under section 70 of this Act in respect of any sum payable in default that the defaulter does not reside in the petty sessions area or (as the case may be) within the jurisdiction of the court of summary jurisdiction in question—

(a) he is not required by subsection (1) or (2) above to register that sum, but

(b) he must cause the certificate to be sent to the appropriate clerk,

and subsection (1) or, as the case may be, (2) above shall apply accordingly on receipt by the appropriate clerk of the certificate as it applies on receipt by the clerk to whom it was originally sent.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4) above, the appropriate clerk—

(a) if the defaulter appears to the clerk receiving the registration certificate to reside in England and Wales, is the clerk to the justices for the petty sessions area in which the defaulter appears to him to reside, and

(b) if the defaulter appears to the clerk receiving the registration certificate to reside in Scotland, is the clerk of a court of summary jurisdiction for the area in which the defaulter appears to him to reside.

(6) On registering any sum under this section for enforcement as a fine, the clerk to the justices for a petty sessions area or, as the case may be, the clerk of a court of summary jurisdiction must give to the defaulter notice of registration—

(a) specifying the amount of that sum, and

(b) giving the information with respect to the offence and the authority for registration included in the registration certificate by virtue of section 70(5)(a) and (b) of this Act or (in a case within subsection (3) above) the corresponding information.

(7) On the registration of any sum in a magistrates' court or a court of summary jurisdiction by virtue of this section any enactment referring (in whatever terms) to a fine imposed or other sum adjudged to be paid on the conviction of such a court shall have effect in the case in question as if the sum so registered were a fine imposed by that court on the conviction of the defaulter on the date of the registration.

(8) Accordingly, in the application by virtue of this section of the provisions of the [1980 c. 43.] Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 relating to the satisfaction and enforcement of sums adjudged to be paid on the conviction of a magistrates' court, section 85 of that Act (power to remit a fine in whole or in part) is not excluded by subsection (2) of that section (references in that section to a fine not to include any other sum adjudged to be paid on a conviction) from applying to a sum registered in a magistrates' court by virtue of this section.

(9) For the purposes of this section, where the defaulter is a body corporate, the place where that body resides and the address of that body are either of the following—

(a) the registered or principal office of that body, and

(b) the address which, with respect to the vehicle concerned, is the address recorded in the record kept under the [1971 c. 10.] Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971 as being that body’s address.