Hi there i got stopped by the police this morning as i was on my way to get an MOT for my motorbike.
The police officer told me than my bike didn’t have an Mot, and i told him that it was booked today I also told him that it was going to have a new rear tyre. when he started to check my motorbike he did said that the rear tyre was illegal. he didn’t mention anything about points on my licence but took a picture and he said that he was going to report me for not having an MOT, he didnt give me any paper work or anything. does this mean i can still get points on my licence?
Sounds like rubbish to me. It’s well known you can ride without a current MOT to an MOT centre if you have an appointment. I’d argue the same is true for the tyre as you clearly were going to get it addressed at the same time.
Hi Jay, Thanks for your reply. He had a PDA/Smart Phone and he put some information in it, he also took a picture of my tyre. My question is , If he wanted to give me points on my license. would he had done it this morning? or can he still report me for having an illegal tyre. I thought they normally give you a piece of paper to produce your documents to a police station and if they are going to give you points they tell you there and then…
That sounds very strange. Maybe he’s just going to check that you had the MOT done.
You can drive a vehicle with an expired MOT in the following circumstances.
- From your house to a pre booked MOT.
- From the MOT station back to your house following an MOT failure.
- From your house to a pre booked appointment at a garage to have your vehicle repaired.
- From the garage back to your house.
- From hour house to a pre booked MOT for a retest.
It explains it all here. https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test
You could still get fined for an illegal tire but I think he has to give you paperwork on the spot. There are some traffic police on here that can probably tell you more.
Thank you all for your feed back…
He Would also need to measure the tread depth & not just use a visual reference
As long as you can prove you had an MOT today, you should be ok. If your bike passes the MOT, and you get the new tyre, I would think that would be a perfect defence, should the matter go to court.
I’m pretty sure no MOT is a fine only & no points.
However, being on the road with an illegal tyre is a points incurring offence & other than influencing the copper to use his judgement to let it go as you’re on your way to get it replaced , it makes no difference if you’re on your way to a pre-booked MOT. That said, as pointed out above, he would need evidence that it had under 1mm tread left & a picture wouldn’t prove that. Was he a real copper & not a community support one? I would have thought that if a real one was going to do you for an illegal tyre he would have offered you a fixed penalty notice on the spot rather than report you?
Of course if you’re already on 9 points then that rules out the possibility of the FPN being offered as it would bring you up to 12 & you’d need to go to court so they can ban you.
As has been mentioned you are aloud to take your bike to an MOT centre if it was booked. I would have thought the bald tyre, if he was going to do anything about it, would have been cause for him to call a recovery truck and your bike to have been taken. Anyway it seem s to me like no action has been taken. Wait 2 weeks and see is all you can really do at this moment and time.
By the way if something does come through challenge it.
Hi Pat
Yeah, he was a proper copper on a big BMW bike. The reason he stopped me was because of my riding on the bends in Park lane coming from Victoria doing 40. I told him it was going in for the first MOT and a rear tyre change . he checked the bike all over and he did say that the Tyre was illegal but at not moment he mentioned points on my licence but i did noticed that he had something on his hand like a pen and he was looking at the tyre and touching it with it and took a picture, he also mentioned that the center of tyre was illegal but the sides were ok. he seen like a reasonable copper but he had a PDA/Smart phone with him and he wrote in there what i said. ( I am going to get the mot done today and also the rear tyre. he asked me to sign it and press save. after that he said i am going to (report you for not having a valid MOT, they might write to you and take you to court or when they check and they can see that the Mot was done today they might write to you with a warning letter or they might still decide to take you to court) but i was scared to ask him if he was going to give me points. I got a clean licence, he never mentioned it any way. So that is what i am not sure about… can he still give me points or not? one my work colleagues said that he would have giving me the points on the spot and that he would also had given me the paper work… but he gave me nothing.
If you fail to get it done today you will get in trouble for no valid MOT as they can & will check as this also invalidates your Insurance so double whammy, If however you take it today and it fails you will be ok for 2 weeks as you have 10 days to take it back for a retest, but you are not to ride it on the road until it has a valid MOT as you are fully aware it is unroadworthy as it now has a expired MOT and an in date failure notice. Was it Booked in for an MOT or was you planning to just rock up somewhere and get it done? if you just planned going somewhere i would make it your number 1 priority as MOT’s are hard to get done on the day. I would also refrain from riding it now you have been pulled as if they pull you again and it still isn’t done they will not be happy and they will go over the bike and find endorsable issues and give you as much as they can as they do not like being made a fool of
When I got pulled for a small licence plate, I too was ‘going to be reported’. Was asked to sign a paper version with my details and the ‘offence’. Apparently they no longer give on the spot fines (edit: for this offence) but send that onto someone else who then issue the fine. It duly came within a short amount of time and I paid it.
In your case, on the MOT front, you should be well covered as the law does allow you to travel to the MOT testing station - getting the certificate will prove you were doing just that. Unless there’s something I’m missing, can’t see how they can do you for that. But you shouldn’t go to work first on the day of the test, it should be a case you drive straight to the test centre and back. Normally wouldn’t be an issue but since you got pulled on the way to work, if you get pulled again, you could be in serious doo doo
The bald tyre, that’s another matter. You can get caught a day later that the MOT and if the bike is not roadworthy, you can get done for it. As he mentioned (and from what I remember), a tyre has to be 1.0mm tread across 3/4 of the tyre. Since he let you go, I would assume your tire is fine.
The moral of this story must surely be, if your MOT has expired, don’t do anything that will attract the interest of Mr Plod.
Marmalade
Yes, the bike was booked since last Friday for today. They didn’t have any space available until today. I also went back on Monday to talk to them about the tyre so they had enough time to order it for today. And when he stopped me this morning I was actually on my way to drop off the bike at the Yamaha garage which is 3 minute walk from my work place. It was a little bit of bad luck and coinsedence. But any way o will pay the fine if it comes through. I just don’t want to get points on my license.
Thank all for your feed back. And I am sure I will do things differently next time…
I wouldn’t pay any fine as you haven’t done anything wrong? If it’s about riding without MOT, I would challenge in court as you are allowed to ride to garage if it’s pre-booked.
If it’s about the tyre (shouldn’t be as he shouldn’t have let you drive on with an illegal tyre)… maybe you can get the garage to give you a separate reading of the tyre you are replacing. If they find it to be legal, then you have plenty of ammunition.
Sounds like rubbish to me. It’s well known you can ride without a current MOT to an MOT centre if you have an appointment.
You must both have an MOT booked and believe that the vehicle will pass it.
I think he wrote down your details in order to make sure if you get stopped again in the future and bring up the same excuse they would then do you for it.
i wont be worried about any ticket if you have actually passed your MOT today and changed your rear tyre.
“he had a PDA/Smart phone with him and he wrote in there what i said”
Without cautioning you first. Tut tut.
