Speeding Offence

[BernieBob]

Hi, I'm new to blogs so if I'm in the wrong place asking the wrong questions excuse me. My daughter and I share a car. She (registered keeper) received a notice of speeding in a place neither of us remember being but it's close to the London entrance of the M4 heading West. It could have been either of us. We have tried to explain this to the Met, their forms don't allow the registered keeper to admit that he or she was the driver or name another, We have therefore NOT been able to fill in the form. We have written several times to the Met they just keep sending the form and threatening dire consequences ( up to £2,500 in fines.) we have sent a recorded delivery letter which was signed for by "met pol". they still keep sending conditional offer and fixed penalty. There's no way to seek advice and no 'phone number to contact "J Snell" whose name is on the letter. Do we have any oprions here except to pay and receive the points. My daughter's fist encounter with the justice system has her rather worried !

Thanks in advance for any advice

[des8]

If you don't say who was driving your daughter will be facing a S172 charge, to which the Statutory defence is:

“A person shall not be guilty of an offence…if he shows that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained who the driver of the vehicle was.”

This means that you must demonstrate to the court the degree of “diligence” you have exercised when trying to establish who was driving. It is a high hurdle to clear and simply turning up and saying “dunno who was driving” won’t cut the mustard.
You will be expected to show that you have taken extreme steps to ascertain who was driving E.G. requested photos from police to see if the driver can be identified;(might even be a car with cloned plates!) check phone records to see if they give an indication of where either of you were at the time of the offence. and more
The price of failure is high – a hefty fine, six points and insurance grief for a number of years.
Or one of you elects (draw lots?) to take the speeding points and you share the fine.
You haven't said what the speed was