A grandmother has had to accept her first ever speeding points after three attempts to complete a speed awareness course on Zoom failed.

Marilyn Carrick, 75, from Hevingham, was caught driving 35mph in a 30mph zone by a fixed speed camera on Drayton High Road, Taverham, on March 3.

Mrs Carrick, who has never committed any motoring offences in her driving career of over 50 years, received the Norfolk Police speeding notice on March 25 - two days after the coronavirus lockdown started.

After choosing a speed awareness course, to avoid having to take three points on her licence and pay a £100 fine, she attempted her first session run by the police and Norfolk County Council via the online video platform Zoom on June 22.

This could not happen because she was not admitted onto the course.

Her second attempt on July 13 was unsuccessful because the course administrator could hear her but could not see her on the camera. After being advised to take part in a third course on August 3, the same problem occurred.

Mrs Carrick said she was offered a fourth Zoom speed awareness course on August 14 but took the three points on her licence and paid the £100 fine because the deadline for completing the session would have expired by then.

She said: “I feel bad about it. I tried three times to do the course but it didn’t work and I’m being penalised because the time has run out to do it. It is done and dusted. I am not denying I broke the speed limit. I didn’t want three points on my licence.”

MORE: Revealed: Norfolk’s busiest speed cameras raking in £1mShe felt it was unfair that people who did not have access to the internet or a computer, including the elderly, would be forced to take points and a pay a fine if they were caught speeding.

A Norfolk Police spokesperson said: “As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, all class-based speed awareness courses were suspended in March and instead replaced by online/virtual courses via Zoom. Unfortunately in this case, the driver was not able to access the course through Zoom, despite a number of attempts and as a result would not be able to complete the course within the set timescale.”

They added that since lockdown 7,560 people had completed these types of courses in Norfolk.

A council spokesperson said: “We were sorry to hear that a client was unable to complete the speed awareness course within the time frame. We would like to reassure people that this is very rare for a course to repeatedly fail due to IT issues.”