Speeding Ticket

[HHEPPY]

Just a quick question

my wife has received a letter from court about a speeding offence back in July of 2021

she never received the initial notification of the offence so is naturally mortified by this letter / situation

What is the position here?

can she claim that she was not aware, I know for a fact that if she was she would have dealt with it immediately

we don’t throw any Mail away other than junk and I have looked back through and cannot find anything relating to this alleged offence at all.

Is the onus on us to prove we haven’t received it or do the police have to provide evidence that we did?

any advice would be appreciated

regards

andrew

[echat11]

islandgirl Can you please take a look and advise, many thanks.

[islandgirl]

Hi Andrew - so you did not receive the original notification or the reminder? Does the letter you have speak of "fail to provide information"? Have you moved house and failed to update your address with the DVLA as you are legally required to do? Fail to provide would give your wife a hefty fine and 6 points. If you did not receive anything you can contact the court and ask to swear a statutory declaration. You go to court and swear on oath in the witness box that you did not receive it. That does not make the speeding offence go away it resets the clock. Your wife would then be dealt with for the original offence. What is the speed involved? If I know that I can indicate a likely outcome.

[HHEPPY]

Hi Islandgirl,

thank you so much for your help.

we didn’t receive anything.

we only throw away junk mail and then once a year shred everything we don’t want or need.

The offence was on 7/7/21 so she should have received notification by 21/7/21.
we went on holiday around 25/7 for a week, but absolutely nothing was received.
I even check through the pile of post (opened and unopened) to see if there was anything, definitely, nothing.

I am going to double check tonight.

when I got a speeding ticket earlier in the year we had to sign for it, not sure how commonplace that is.

it’s not the sort of thing you miss either, very unlike either of us to miss it.

our post has been very hit and miss with regular problems at the delivery office as a result of Covid

kind regards
Andrew

[islandgirl]

Hello Andrew - you should have had 2 notifications, the original speeding notice and a reminder. These are not usually signed for

Your next step depends on the notice you have now received.

Can you please answer the 2 quick questions:

Does the letter you have received speak of "fail to provide information"?

Have you moved house and failed to update your address with the DVLA as you are legally required to do?

If it is a Fail to Provide notice you need to contact the court and arrange to go in and swear a statutory declaration. Let us know which you have received please.

[HHEPPY]

Hi,

yes the letter mentions failed to provide information

we’ve not moved house recently

many thanks
Andrew

[islandgirl]

Thank you Andrew. Fail to provide is 6 points and a fine - you have to deal with this right away.

So to repeat the advice above: Contact the court and ask to swear a statutory declaration. Your wife will have to go to court and swear on oath in the witness box that she did not receive both notices. That does not make the speeding offence go away it resets the clock. Your wife would then be dealt with for the original offence. What is the speed involved? If I know that I can indicate a likely outcome.

[HHEPPY]

Thanks Islandgirl,

she was doing 36 in a 30 zone

regards
Andrew

[islandgirl]

OK thanks. Usually that would have probably been a speed awareness course offer (unless your wife has points on her licence already) which costs about £100 but you do not get the points or a standard fixed penalty £100 fine and 3 points.

If you "reset the clock" by doing a stat dec you may be given a fine and 3 points so that it "matches" the original offer so £100 and 3 points. That is what often happens in these cases in my court. If you are sentenced according to the guidelines in court it is a band A fine and 3 points. Band A is 50% of your weekly income (less a discount if you plead guilty). You may have to pay costs of £85 too.

The most important thing is not to ignore the Fail to give information which is 6 points and a much bigger fine.

If you wife has 9 points already then that is a whole different story....!

[HHEPPY]

I had another search last night and found the original letter unopened, it was dated 8/7/21 with the offence 7/7/21.

there is no sign of the second letter though.

interestingly and desperately I notice that the letter is addressed to Miss (not Mrs) and her name is spelt wrong, just clutching at straws here

she has a completely clean licence and is absolutely mortified by this.

Regards

andrew

[islandgirl]

The misspelling does not matter. Contact the court and be honest and say you only became aware of it yesterday when you got the Fail to provide information notice and that you have now searched and found the original notice but there was no reminder and that it is misspelled etc.

What should matter is WHEN YOU BECAME AWARE OF IT.

The court may still let you swear a stat dec. Tell her not to be too ashamed...happens to the best of us...I did a speed awareness course for exactly the same speed as your wife a few years ago!

[HandyAndy]

The court may still let you swear a stat dec.

They might do. If she has been convicted of anything, that is. There is no indication that she has (and the timescale makes it unlikely). Perhaps the OP's wife should find that out first. The "letter" may be a Single Justice Procedure Notice.

[islandgirl]

No you are right she has not been convicted of speeding but has had a fail to provide information notice which is more serious than a conviction for speeding in these circumstances - 6 points not 3 and a bigger fine...The stat dec relates to not having received the original notices and is nothing to do with "being convicted"

[HandyAndy]

No you are right she has not been convicted of speeding but has had a fail to provide information notice which is more serious than a conviction for speeding in these circumstances - 6 points not 3 and a bigger fine...The stat dec relates to not having received the original notices and is nothing to do with "being convicted"

Thanks. I'm quite aware of the penalties for s172. What is a "fail to provide information notice"?

A Statutory Declaration is made when a person was not aware of a court decision (in this case a criminal conviction). One cannot be made to swear a notice or document was not received. The police enjoy the presumption that it is served two days after posting. If she wants to use that as a defence she will have to plead Not Guilty to the charge and convince the court "on the balance of probabilities" that she is telling the truth.

There is a tried and tested route if a notice to provide driver's details was not received and a prosecution is launched but it doesn't involve a Stat Dec. We need to find out what the "letter" is that the OP's wife has. My guess (looking at the timescales) is that it is a Single Justice Procedure Notice charging her (hopefully) with both speeding. and "Failing to provide driver's details." but we need to know for sure. If so that is easy to deal with. Let's wait to see if the OP comes back with more info.

And in any case, it seems the notice was received. Even if she could, she can hardly go to court and swear she didn't received it, can she? She could go and swear it was lost down the back of the sideboard for three months but that doesn't really help.

[islandgirl]

No response to the request for information leads to a prosecution for fail to provide information,