Safe Speed Forums

Had a court summons through the post this morning (post marked 12-4-07) for a speeding offence 41 in a 30 which apparently took place on the 1st of october 2006. They sent evidence through to show they posted the NIP which was sent on the 10th of October.

With the time scale being so far back i can not remember driving the car on this date and I did not recieve the initial NIP at my address. Im not aware that any photo evidence exists and if it does i'll hold my hand up and take the 3 points and £60 fine on the chin.

They have sent a form through asking me to return it saying if i'm

a, plead guilty by letter or by person
b,challenge the contents of the statement
c, request the prosectuing officer to attend the hearing at a later date to ask questions?

I may well contact a solicitor because of this, however I would like to know any personal opinions you guys may have on this....

They don't have to prove your receipt of the NIP - just that they sent it.

You can still ask for a copy of the photograph and a copy of the NIP, if you haven't already. Equally, you can plead not guilty and change your plea later, if evidence suggests that you were driving at the alleged speed on the day in question.

Personally, I'd either head over to PePiPoo and ask for more detailed advice or use a service like Freeman Keep on Driving - PePiPoo is free, Freeman is £95 pa to join for 24/7 legal advice, plus around £350 to deal with the court on your behalf. Running a defence in court will cost more, but they can tell you what to do/how to do it yourself for the £95 annual fee, if you want to go down that route.

how do i request a photo at this stage, the court appearence has been scheduled for a week monday, and i have to send a form back to them either pleading guilty or not guilty and postponning the case?

AFAICT (but IANAL) they've got six months from the date of the alleged offence to lay papers before the court and the summons is usually dated soon after the date on which the papers were laid. So ...

Alleged offence was on 1 Oct 2006, which means that papers must be laid before 1 April 2007 otherwise it's timed out and you cannot lawfully be charged. I suspect that your best course of action is to get over to PePiPoo, sign up for the Fight Back forums, complete the NIP Wizard, and ask on there for advice. That said, I suspect that will be to find out from the court the date on which papers where laid and if the case has timed out to take the necessary action to have it dismissed, cancelled, or whatever the proper term is.

If they've filed within the allowed time, you'll then need to address whatever the charge is. If it's speeding, you're probably in the clear if you keep your head unless they have evidence it was you. In most cases, their only evidence is your confession resulting from an S172 "request" - and you say you haven't identified the driver. If they're charging you with failure to identify the driver, get over to PePiPoo. Morally, I don't see how they can punish you for failing to answer their request when you haven't actually received it - but the law can be funny about things like this so I could be wrong.

Again, IANAL - so please ask on PePiPoo.

_________________
Will

You don't know whether or not you are guilty....so, you can plead not guilty, the court will set a new date for trial, and you can request the "evidence" from the CPS. If it shows that you were in the car and speeding on the day in question, you can still change your plea to guilty ahead of the trial date.

Pepipoo is best. However, very briefly, plead Not guilty and ask for an adjournment as you have not had any previous correspondence on the topic and therefore need time to deal with things. In parallel, write to the scamerati, enclosing a copy of your not-guilty plea, explaining that you've not previously had any paperwork in your possession, and would therefore be grateful given the time lapsed if they could furnish you with any evidence at all that your car was in the prescribed place. If more than one of you could have been driving it at the time, put that down too and ask if there is any front-facing photo that may help you identify the miscreant.

....but I agree, if there is any doubt about the summons/NIP being served in good time, PePiPoo should be able to advise you on how to take advantage of this to have the case dismissed.

Julia

to Safespeed.

Thanks, Roger

why on earth dont they send the initial nip by recorded mail? this would then save all the paperwork they have put together for this court appearence?

Ive heard of other people recieving a final reminder and they are suggesting they didnt send me one of these?

Update, this morning recieved 2 letters, first evidence showng my vehicle caught speeding (cant make out driver though as its taken from behind) and the other from the courts saying they are considering banning me!

this is in response to a letter i sent back to the court recently stating i had no idea i had been recorded breaking the limit of 30 (41) and required evidence before i pleaded to this offence. The supposed offence occured on the 1st of october 2006 of which i didnt recieve any notification and no subsequent reminder etc.

Any opinions on what action to take next? driver was probably me slight chance could have been my girfriend at the time (she lives in ireland), would it be advisable to contact court before hearing and plead guilty to the orignal ofence?

Failing to serve the NIP is fatal to the case.

There's a presumption that proof of posting equals proof of service, but as I understand it, this presumption is rebuttable.

In practice this means giving evidence under oath that the NIP was not received. Assuming that you're telling us the truth, that would seem to be the way to go. I know that this is something that Nick Freeman (Mr Loophole) has done a number of times.

You may need some legal assistance to run this defence.

What have the folk at Pepipoo suggested?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

This happened to me years ago - I was actually banned for 3 weeks without knowing it. You MUST make sure that any papers you send to the court have been received and actioned. Once you send them stuff, call the clerk and make sure the court has deal with them.

If they think you're ignoring a court summons they go ahead and ban you (and will get round to telling you weeks later).

In my case the duty solicitor sent in a request for posponement which lay in someones in-tray at the court.

Don't for a minute even dream that the courts are efficient!

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Wake me up when the revolution starts
STOP the Toll Tax http://www.traveltax.org.uk

So it may seem, the letter and document i sent back to them 2 weeks ago was never recieved/rejected according to royal mail (i have retained all reciepts etc as proof of sending) however the letter i sent to the Safety cam partnership was recieved thus me recieving photo evidence, it seems postal problems are not isolated.

This is probably why i recieved such a threating letter this morning.