Letter to Court for speeding - help needed

[Ghost_]

I have been cought speeding twice in one journey iv been sent a single justice procedure x2 for speeding and for failing to give information as i moved address and forgot to update my v5c.
Im in deep shit now beacuse of it all, iv drafted a letter to court to see if they can merge the two speeding fines together and let me off for failing to provide information.

Here is a draft. Does it sound okay ?

Many thanks for any help

References: ---------------------------------
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BRIGHTON & HOVE MAGISTRATES COURT
EDWARD STREET
BRIGHTON
EAST SUSSEX
BN20LG

April 5, 2022

Dear Sir or Madam

Speeding on 12/10/2021
Defendant: K D

I have received a single justice procedure notice for two offences of speeding on the same day and failing to give information relating to the identification of the driver for both of the above.

Firstly, I would like to apologise for not updating my address on the vehicles log book after I have moved home. I was under a tremendous amount of stress during my move and simply forgot to get it done. I did not know about the letters and had no idea about the fines as they were getting delivered to my old Address in Brighton at 24 Thornhill Avenue Brighton BN18RG. Therefore, I would like to plead Not guilty to the offence of failing to give information, without having to attend a court hearing if possible. I am deeply sorry for any inconvenience I have caused and since this I have updated my V5C to prevent anything like this arising in the future. I also promise to do so every time I decide to change address.

On the day of the speeding offence I left New Milton to Go to Brighton at around 7.20am. The purpose of the journey was to collect the rest of my stuff and bring it back to my parent’s house in the New Forest where I was moving to live due to unfortunate financial difficulties I faced while living in Brighton. At 08:42 First Speeding camera caught me travelling at 76mph at: A27, Newells Lane overbridge, West Ashling. Second offence was recorded just 24min later which was approximately 13miles away from the first camera at 09:06 at A27 Arundel Road, Binsted. I was travelling at 72mph.

I plead guilty to the speeding offence charges. I consent to being sentenced without attending court myself. I apologize for speeding. I realise the danger I may have caused and have modified the way I drive since and I am now more familiar with the speed limit for a goods vehicle. I understand that there was no justification for my speeding on 12/10/2021. I do however think that because two offences were less than half an hour apart and were both accumulated in the same journey I please ask you to consider merging the two offence in to one resulting in 3 penalty points instead of 6.

Mitigation

I have been driving since 22.11.2016 and my licence was clean up until 23/12/2021. I currently have 3 points on my licence for failing to comply with a traffic sign. I want to be as honest as possible.
I am the owner of a small removal business and further points or possible disqualification from driving would be completely catastrophic to my livelihood.
I am also expecting a baby with my partner meaning my driving licence Is now more crucial to me than ever. My financial situation hasn’t been good for years now, as I mentioned above I have had to move back in to live with my parents. As a result of Covid-19 my business and work have suffered drastically. My partner also is living with her parents and 4 other difficult foster children which is proving to be extremely difficult and stressful for her and our unborn child.
It is my duty now to find us a home to live in for when the new born baby arrives and with potential 6 points or a driving ban it would totally destroy us financially and mentally.

Having struggled with depression and anxiety since my early teenage years I am no facing tremendous pressure to provide for me and my partner as well as the baby.


Sentencing

The speed involved is 76 mph in 60mph and 72 mph in 60 mph on the second camera. There are no aggravating features apart from the speed. Please consider treating the two offences as one because of the circumstances mentioned earlier in this plea.

[islandgirl]

Here are the guidelines
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk...-revised-2017/
You ahould be able to overturn the fail to provide but the speeding will then be a "live" matter again. These are 2 offences and will not I believe be treated as one. I have had people in court with 6 offences over a couple of days on the same stretch of road.
You are looking at 3 points x 2 so you would have 9 in total (you need 12 to be disqualified as a totter)
I would contact the court and they will explain how to get the fail to provide removed (you will have to attend I believe)

[HandyAndy]

You are most unlikely to get the two offences combined (though it cost nothing to try). As islandgirl says, the way to proceed is to offer to plead guilty to the speeding charges but you should make it clear in your letter that this is only on the condition that the FtP charges are dropped. This is important. There is a possibility (though not a strong one, but you need to avoid it entirely) that they will accept your guilty pleas to speeding and then proceed to try you for the FtP offences (to which you have no viable defence). (Bingo! 18 points!).

Provided you do this there should be no problem. Normally you would have to attend court to do this but during the pandemic courts in many areas allowed the "deal" to be done without attendance. The court will let you know.

[islandgirl]

I have had people attending to do a stat dec and remove a conviction for fail to provide information very recently - I believe you will have to attend. Ring the court and sort out a date and explain the circumstances. I would not do this by letter anyway - single justice procedure items are very rushed as there are so many to get through and the detail could be missed.

[HandyAndy]

I have had people attending to do a stat dec and remove a conviction for fail to provide information very recently...

He's not going to do a Statutory Declaration as he has no conviction to have removed. His proposal (to plead guilty to speeding on the condition that the s172 charges are dropped) requires the agreement of the prosecutor and that's why attendance is normally required. However, in some areas during the pandemic such proposals were handled under the SJ process. I assume that some Justices' Clerks had made an agreement with the local police prosecutors to accept those deals if they came before an SJ. It seems a very good idea which I think could be retained permanently because those deals are rarely, if ever, declined.

[islandgirl]

Usually people are in court to overturn a conviction for fail to provide because they did not know about it. Yes it is true that the OP is not yet convicted. I have not seen this done as a SJ procedure though if you say it can be I have no reason to doubt.