speeding ticket

late74

I received a speeding ticket today in Scotland on my way home to the midlands from Fort William.

it was given to me at the roadside by to officers, 1 was holding the speed gun and the other was writing out the ticket.

first of all I didnt believe i was speeding, the road was a country road at 60mph which changed to a 30mph on a sharpe 90deg bend, naturally you have to slow as the bend is too sharpe to take at 60mph and as i came off the bend there were 2 policemen about 40 yards down.

1 had the hand held gun and the other was in the side road, the officer with the gun stopped me asked that if i was aware that it was a 30mph zone to which "ok" he then said i was speeding at 42 mph to which i dissagreed straight away, and he said to pull into the side road and his colleage would tell me how i would be dealt with, after which he returned to the edge to try and catch other motorists.

his colleage said he was issuing me with a speeding ticket with the offer to accept a £60 fine and 3 penalty points i said i was not speeding and he said i could conest it in court if i wished. he took my photo card license and filled in my ticket before folding it and handing it to me, i never looked at the ticket as i was so gutted and i just put it in my wallet and drove off as i had a 400 mile drive ahead of me.

when i got home today i looked at the ticket only to find that it had not been properly filled in.

all details are correct except has a part where the officer writes in his what i did wrong and it reads " driving at mph in a 30mph limit"

it does not say what speed they suposedly caught me at, it almost as if he did not know and left a blank space to ask his colleage after filling in the other details, but then forgot to ask.

so esentially i dont even know what speed i was spposedly doing as far as i am concerned i wasnt speeding, but as far as i can see on the ticket there is no way of contesting it other than in court, the problem is that i live over 400 miles away and it would cost me far more that £60 to contest it as it would probably mean 2 days off work + hotel + solicitor.

any suggestions anyone

Crabman

Hello, welcome to MSE :hello:

I'd suggest you post this over on the www.pepipoo.com forums where you'll hopefully receive specific advice about your situation & how to proceed.

late74

thanks for that Crabman, i will give that a try

ginnersinner

You are, in essence, correct. The only way of challenging it is in court. That's the proper laid out procedure and I continue to wonder how people think that sending letters to the CC, or trying to spend hours on the phone with the Traffic department will make it go away.

Plead not guilty in the manner described on the ticket - if you like enclose a short letter setting out your reasons for pleading not guilty (stick to the facts, don't ramble) and the case will be reviewed before they decide wether to procede to court. Then when a summons is issued you may have another opportunity to enter your plea, if it's not guilty the prosecutor will then assess the case - if they in fact agree at that stage that the mistakes made would cause the case to fail they may withdraw it, but the upshot is that you will probably have to attend court to defend your case. You don't need to pay for a solicitor if you think you could competently defend yourself, but its advisable.

late74

ginnersinner wrote: »

You are, in essence, correct. The only way of challenging it is in court. That's the proper laid out procedure and I continue to wonder how people think that sending letters to the CC, or trying to spend hours on the phone with the Traffic department will make it go away.

Plead not guilty in the manner described on the ticket - if you like enclose a short letter setting out your reasons for pleading not guilty (stick to the facts, don't ramble) and the case will be reviewed before they decide wether to procede to court. Then when a summons is issued you may have another opportunity to enter your plea, if it's not guilty the prosecutor will then assess the case - if they in fact agree at that stage that the mistakes made would cause the case to fail they may withdraw it, but the upshot is that you will probably have to attend court to defend your case. You don't need to pay for a solicitor if you think you could competently defend yourself, but its advisable.

Many Thanks for your reply, there is no option to plead not guilty it just says i have 28 days to send my payment and license to the address over leaf or i will be summoned to court and may be prosecuted. i rang the number located with the address over leaf and they said they are only the office that processes the claims and have no authority to process and appeals. so i guess its 3 points and pay the £60. or ignore it and attend court.

HO87

There is no route of appeal and withholding payment and surrender of your licence is the default method of provoking the issue of a citation. - which is your only option beyond paying up and taking the points. Given that speeding is a strict liability offence all that the prosecution need show is that an offence was committed by the driver of a vehicle and that the driver at the time was you (or whoever) and a conviction is all but guaranteed. There is little to review, as such, and even though this would have to get through the Procurator Fiscal unless you were able to show that the laser speed gun, its method of use or the Traffic Regulation Order establishing the limit; its signage or (if relevant) the spacing of the system of street lighting was faulty in some way, shape or form then you are likely to be properly convicted.

The fact that, in the overall scheme of things, some detail has been missed off the EPN is, frankly, neither here nor there and it is very unlikely indeed that the retained copy of the ticket is the only record kept by the officers of events. The omission of the detail does not in anyway invalidate the ticket itself and it would be foolish to assume otherwise.

I take issue with only one comment of ginnersinner's and that is that instructing a solicitor to represent you will not be cheap and will substantially increase the costs of defending the case - and there is no hint at present of anything representing a defence worthy of being run. If it was necessary to defend the matter and you were capable of some research in preparation and were reasonably articulate then I would recommend that you defend yourself given that were you to win in Scotland then you cannot recover defence costs from the court. I would not suggest that using a solicitor was necessarily advisable in such circumstances.

As said elsewhere, I suggest taking the £60 on the chin and regard it as an extra tourist tax, perhaps. The 3 points (assuming that you do not have any others) are unlikely to add significantly to your insurance premiums and may well add nothing at all.