Owning and driving a car is already an expensive business. But there are various motoring offences that could make it even pricier if you commit them. We’ve hunted down a selection of the four-figure fines that you could be hit with for driving, car and admin infringements.
You might be surprised to read that some fines for what might seem like fairly petty offences are actually quite hefty.
Dodgy tyres could get you the biggest fine
If you have four illegal tyres, you could be hit with a £2,500 fine per dodgy tyre plus three penalty points on your licence. That means for four unroadworthy tyres, a driver could be stung with a £10,000 fine and lose their licence with 12 penalty points.
But that’s in a very extreme case. It’ll be obvious the driver has been putting themselves and other road users at risk. What’s more, they will probably have been doing so knowingly and over a period of time.
If a police officer or officer from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency notices a tyre that’s worn a bit beyond the 1.6mm legal tread depth, they will usually decide whether to give a fixed penalty notice. That will be a fine between £50 and £300.
In serious cases, they will refer offenders to court. The magistrates then decide how much the fine will be. Courts take a dim view of motoring offences such as driving with bald tyres. According to research by Confused.com, the average tyre offender is hit with six points on their licence. And those who have been fined by the courts pay an average of £2,700.
Anti-social driving
Drive without reasonable consideration for other road users and you could be liable for a fine of up to £5,000. But that is for extreme cases. Splash a pedestrian by driving through a puddle and you’re probably more likely to get a £100 fixed penalty notice.
Equally, swearing at another driver might be considered disorderly conduct. The result could be a fine that’s 75 per cent of your weekly income, up to a maximum £1,000. In extreme cases, if it’s judged to be threatening behaviour, the fine can be as much as £5,000.
Driving with no MOT could land a hefty penalty
If the police stop you because their Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras show you don’t have a valid MOT, that’s a motoring offence that could result in a £1,000 fine.
As with the illegal tyres, if it’s your first offence, it’s a genuine oversight and you get an MOT swiftly, you’re likely to get away with a lot less. But if your car isn’t roadworthy…
Driving an unroadworthy car? Best not to
The fine for driving with no MOT is significant. But if your car doesn’t have an MOT, there’s a good chance it will have some faults that make it unroadworthy too. Driving a car that isn’t safe to be on the road attracts a £2,500 fine in extreme cases.
If that doesn’t deter you, the points might. A court can award you three points for every fault. So faulty lights will be three points, unsafe brakes three points, a bald tyre three points and so on. It’ll only take four faults before you’ve reached the 12 points to lose your licence.
Check your cat
Catalytic converters are expensive bits of kit. And cat thefts have been soaring (they’ve more than doubled over the past 12 months according to research by Which?). Yours might have been stolen and not replaced. Or perhaps it’s failed and you’ve taken it out instead of replacing it. In either case, you could be hit with a £1,000 fine.
Like the other penalties, you’re unlikely to get the full £1,000 fine if your cat was only pinched the previous week. But it could still be expensive.
Keep on top of the admin
Moving house can be a busy time. But forgetting to tell the DVLA might result in a fine of up to £1,000. As with all the others, this is in extreme cases when you haven’t told them for years. But even so, no fine is a good fine.
Don’t mess with your number plates
With winter coming, the roads are going to get dirty. And that means car number plates can become obscured. A bit of muck is fine. But the authorities take a dim view of number plates that are so filthy they can’t be read. Equally, number plate lights that don’t work and character spacing, size or fonts that don’t comply with the law could all land you with a £1,000 penalty.
There are loads of number plates with wrong character spacing but noo action seems to be taken.
I got a £100 fixed penalty for my number plate being “non-conforming” (Lincs) but it was recognisable enough to know where to send the ticket!!
Thanks very useful.
Thanks,
This is extortion. Whatever is next? Blood perhaps. As if the sharp rise in petrol prices is not enough. It is the Electric Agenda. I watched a cartoon today with my friend’s toddler, I was shocked with the propaganda about electric cars and how GREEN it is. Really?
Very informative thank you to bringing it to my attention
thank you some of the noted fines i had no idea good to now .
Interesting information but how do you prove that these things have happened and get redress ? Having been splashed on my walk how do I take action about it ? More details please.
10 cars aproaching me in a stretch of 8 miles with only one headlight, no-one cares or does anything about it !!
Very good tips I am so aware of what I have to do in my diary so I check constantly that everything has been done to keep legal.
Keeping up with all the latest rules and regulations is a full time job, living in the country where busses in the villages are rarer than hens teeth let alone bus lanes ,but you are expected to be fully up to date with worn out signs and regulations you have never come across. How many city drivers have the first idea about driving in the country side where you quite likely meet livestock and farm equipment bigger than a double decker bus.
useful, thanks
Shame they do nothing about personal plates which do not comply.
Don’t mess with your number plates
With winter coming, the roads are going to get dirty. And that means car number plates can become obscured. A bit of muck is fine. But the authorities take a dim view of number plates that are so filthy they can’t be read. Equally, number plate lights that don’t work and character spacing, size or fonts that don’t comply with the law could all land you with a £1,000 penalty.
Why, what’s your problem with them. As long as they can be recognised, who cares about moving the spacing
For those with private number plates transferred from a ULEZ non compliant car to one that is compliant, may I ask that you check on TFL website re compliance. I was lucky enough to be going into zone 1 for a trip to the theatre, needed to pay the congestion zone and was told my petrol BMW 2014, Euro 6, etc was not compliant and I needed to pay the ULEZ as well as the congestion charge.
I needed to send a copy of my log book to TFL and this was not enough I was told that I needed to send a conformity certificate from BMW after 5-10 days a reply to say that my car was compliant all along.
I have received my £12.50 that was paid in error to TFL but I have not been told of any fines that I may of accrued wrongly since the 25/10/2021 when the charge commenced. I would like confirmation that any fines up until the time that TFL corrected their mistake are admonished but they have not sent me confirmation of this.
Please be careful as I do feel that I found out TFL mistake fairly quickly others may find themselves fighting fines and possibly bailiff actions- so please check as I am sure I am not the only motorist to come up against this bureaucracy of TFL
Common bloody sense
Thanks for the update
Thanks for all that will be aware! J S
Excellent information guys!.
Annual MOT’s on UK cars under ten years old should change to every two years as most continental countries do.
Thank you for the info. It makes me check, and know that I can drive safely.
All this information is good to know, and a good reminder.
It’s a pity the tampering with licence plate spacing is not enforced
very helpful information
handy information, thank you
Thank you. Useful – and surprising
We see number plates with character spacing.that does not comply with the law, virtually every time we drive. We have never seen anyone pulled over by the Police for this. What is the point of a law if it is not enforced?
INTERESTING INFORMATION THANK YOU