Notice of intention to prosecute

therock585

I was flashed by a speed camera on 31/5/15 for doing 38 on a 30. I just received a notice of intention to prosecute and a request for information today from central ticket office. I thought they had to send something in 14 days or else it is not valid.

OnanTheBarbarian

http://roadtrafficrepresentation.com/RTR/PublicForms/HowWeCanHelp.aspx

Rover_Driver

therock585 wrote: »

I was flashed by a speed camera on 31/5/15 for doing 38 on a 30. I just received a notice of intention to prosecute and a request for information today from central ticket office. I thought they had to send something in 14 days or else it is not valid.

Who is the registered keeper of the vehicle? The 14 days only applies to the service of the first Notice of Intended Prosecution sent to them.

There is no time limit for subsequent requests or reminders.

Liverlad67

Were you driving your own car or a hire car? If your own yes they only have 14 days to serve a nip. But if a hire car they serve on the company and request who was driving at the time. But if your own car you should be in the clear as they only have the 14 day window.

TadleyBaggie

They have 14 days to serve the notice on the registered keeper, however if the vehicle has recently been purchased or the RK has moved recently, then they may have an exemption. My bet is the first NIP went something else first as they are highly unlikely to send the first NIP out after 6 weeks or so.

soolin

I've moved this to the sub board .

Quentin

This isn't the best forum for advice on speeding nips.

Pepipoo is the best place to take this

Umkomaas

Oops @soolin! Not many to advise substantively here.

PePiPoo is the best place for speeding issues; we advise on dealing with private parking problems.

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?act=SF&s=&f=5

HO87

As has been explained above the general rule is that a notice of intended prosecution must be served on the registered keeper of the vehicle within 14 days of the alleged offence counting the day of the offence as Day 0.

If you are not the registered keeper then - as said above - the police are under no such time limit for the service of any subsequent notice other than may apply as far as the statute of limitation (largely 6 months) is concerned. There would be little point, for example, in serving a notice 7 months after the commission of a speeding offence as that is subject to the 6 month cut-off.

Are the details at DVLA up to date? You may be the registered keeper but is address at which the vehicle is registered your current address? If you are the registered keeper then a notice will be regarded as having been properly served if it had been delivered to your last known address.

The important bit

It would be very rare indeed for a notice not to be composed of two parts. The first, that puts you on notice that the police are investigating an alleged offence and a second part that makes a formal, legal requirement of you to identify the driver at the relevant time.

You ignore this requirement (made under the provisions of s.172 Road Traffic Act 1988) at your peril. If a recipient of such a requirement (depending on the circumstances) either fails to provide such details of the identity of the driver as he may be required to fails to supply such information as is in his power to supply then an offence is committed.

In your case you have stated that you were the driver at the time and so were also the keeper (not to be confused with registered keeper) of the vehicle at the time. You must therefore provide your details (usually the name, address etc and occasionally the driving licence number) within 28 days of your receiving the notice. It matters not, at this stage, whether the notice of intended prosecution itself was properly served on you or not (i.i. within the 14 days - if that applies) you must respond as required to the second limb of the document (to provide your details) or risk conviction for the offence of failing to furnish details. This carries a hefty fine (salary/income dependant but figures of £350-500 are entirely normal) and a mandatory 6 points.

That in itself is not the worst of it the offence endorsement code - MS90 - is thoroughly disliked by insurers (who view it as an indication of dishonesty) and it is not unknown for them to either rescind policies on being notified of the offence or to refuse to renew policies. Having to admit to a new insurance company that you have that offence on your record and have been refused insurance or had your insurance rescinded will cause problems in getting a new policy and will add significantly to the premium and is likely to continue to do so until that offence drops off your record. You should really try to avoid that by replying promptly to the requirement.

The law states that unless a notice of intended prosecution is served within the time limit set out that the person concerned will not be convicted - it doesn't state that the process stops immediately. I therefore suggest that you respond promptly to the notice by completing the form (don't forget to sign it) naming yourself etc and attach to it a covering letter (make sure it is stapled to the form and mark on the form itself that there is an accompanying letter) stating the date on which the notice was received by you and pointing out that that is beyond the time limit required. If, of course, you realise that the vehicle is a company car or lease hire etc or you have slipped up and failed to notify a change of address to DVLA then you may want to omit the letter.

If the police have fouled up and failed to serve the notice in time then generally at this point they will write back and thank you for supplying the details but state that no further action will be taken. Equally, if they consider it properly served then they will tell you why.

Before you post things off make sure you keep a copy of everything and, if you can find it, keep the envelope in which the notice arrived.

HTH