“Failure To Surrender Licence - Even Though I Gave Him One?”

Hi everyone, after 12 years of clean driving, I got my first ticket. I had stepped out to grab a bite and left my valid licence in my other pocket. I had an expired "valid photo ID" licence in my vehicle that I keep just in case I need photo ID. I gave the officer that one and I told him my valid one is at my house which is literally 400 meters away but he just took the expired one instead.

He came back and gave me a ticket for failure to surrender licence.

The ticket has my old house address on it. I do have a valid drivers license that is not expired with my new address, however that was left at home.

So I did give him a licence just not the valid one.

Is there any way to fight this?

Thank you in advance.

Pretty tough. The charge is a simple one - you were required to provide your licence and didn't. You can tell your story to the crown and maybe catch him/her in a good mood or hope the officer doesn't turn up to trial (rare these days but does happen) otherwise you don't have many other recourses. Depends how much your time is worth v the cost of the ticket.

Thanks for the reply. I do not have the time to fight it but worry it will cause my insurance rates to rise for the next few years. Otherwise I would just pay it. It does bother me that I could have avoided this. He was very nice too. Is it possible he may not file it?

A conviction for fail to surrender licence will likely impact your insurance the same as any other ticket would (i.e. no different then speeding, failing to stop for a red light, etc). The chances of the officer forgetting to file the ticket are slim to nil. Furthermore if it's an electronic ticket (all typed out and printed) it's filed automatically. I would still suggest a first attendance meeting at the very least to see if the Crown is willing to simply drop the ticket. If you live in a busy jurisdiction like Toronto you might have better odds of getting it dropped.

Stanton wrote:A conviction for fail to surrender licence will likely impact your insurance the same as any other ticket would (i.e. no different then speeding, failing to stop for a red light, etc). The chances of the officer forgetting to file the ticket are slim to nil. Furthermore if it's an electronic ticket (all typed out and printed) it's filed automatically. I would still suggest a first attendance meeting at the very least to see if the Crown is willing to simply drop the ticket. If you live in a busy jurisdiction like Toronto you might have better odds of getting it dropped.

Hi, thank you for your reply.

Yes, it's an electronic ticket.

I live in Markham so that would be York Region. I used to live in Toronto just a few km away. I'm not sure how Markham is. What do I do at the first attendance meeting? Do I just tell them it's my first offence and I have not received a ticket in the past 12 years? Is it possible to get a paralegal to handle this for me? If I remember correctly, a ticket impact on insurance will cost around $5000 for the 3-5 year period.

Thanks again.

Also I did surrender a licence so can anyone explain why I would be charged for failing to surrender? Thanks

yyz wrote:Also I did surrender a licence so can anyone explain why I would be charged for failing to surrender? Thanks

The act requires that you surrender your current valid licence.

If this is your first ticket I doubt it will have any impact on your insurance at all. Another one would though.

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to mention I realized my licence was not expired but due to address change it had valid photo ID only. Does that change anything?

So you gave officer a VALID non-expired ontario license, but it was an old license with an old address on it, and you had already gotten a new license with your new address on it?

That wouldn't change anything because that licence is no longer valid in the MTO system. There's actually another # on an Ontario licence to tell which version is the valid one. Probably a good thing you didn't have both with you. It's anther $110 fine for having more than one licence in your possession.