Speeding not heard back. Should I be worried

ivington

Hi there.


I bought a car but never received the documents in the post to say I was the new owner so eventually had to manually do it through the post office. I eventually got it sorted, but I had now owned the car for over 3 months and it wasn't long after that I received 2 separate speeding intention to prosecute that happened about 2 weeks apart but 2 months earlier. One was for 59 in a 50. The other for 49 in a 40. Just my luck and I've never had anything before in nearly 20 years of driving.


Anyway, I accepted liability and sent both back in the same envelope, which at the time I thought was the safe thing to do. However, it's now over 28 days since the date of the original speeding letters and I received only 1 back about a week ago so I'm a little worried as to what's become of the other one, and as they don't allow any means to contact them to find out I really don't know what to do.


One thing about the letter I have received, it makes no mention of taking the option for the speed awareness and I'm not sure if this is significant. It's just a straight 'pay the fine of £100 and get 3 penalty points'.


Any advice


Peter I

Quentin

ivington wrote: »

One thing about the letter I have received, it makes no mention of taking the option for the speed awareness and I'm not sure if this is significant. It's just a straight 'pay the fine of £100 and get 3 penalty points'.


Any advice

Unless you have grounds to fight it in court, you pay it!

Car_54

ivington wrote: »

they don't allow any means to contact them to find out I really don't know what to do.

There must be an address, as you've already sent forms to them.

Nasqueron

Not all police forces offer Speed Awareness and you can only do one per 3 years so you'll end up with 3 points regardless, more likely 6 if neither offer it

wgl2014

Contact the Police Force in question.

Google or look on their website for contact details. If you still can't find them call 101 and ask.

DoaM

ivington wrote: »

I eventually got it sorted, but I had now owned the car for over 3 months and it wasn't long after that I received 2 separate speeding intention to prosecute that happened about 2 weeks apart but 2 months earlier. One was for 59 in a 50. The other for 49 in a 40

Are you saying the speeding events happened after you bought the car but before the registered keeper details had been updated with DVLA?

If yes then it sounds like the Police had issued the NIPs to the last-known keeper; they've then notified the Police that they'd sold the vehicle on X date to Y person/business. So the Police were probably waiting for the DVLA database to update with the current keeper details.

Both speeds look like they might fall within the SAC guideline limits, but obviously you can only get 1 offer of a SAC every 3 years, so at least one of these events would incur a fine and points. The delay in identifying the current keeper may have persuaded the Police to not offer a SAC in either case.

ivington

Of course. I always was wanting to pay both. My worry is that because I have only received a reply from one, that the other one has somehow disappeared down a dark hole and either been misplaced or lost, and because they give you 28 days, that I'm going to bit hit with a bigger penalty of some kind because, in their eyes I have not responded inside the mandatory 28 days, when in fact I did respond.

ivington

But they say in the original letters, don't bother to contact us through this address because we will not respond.

wgl2014

Then read what I posted earlier and give them a call.

ivington

Yes both manage to miraculously happen after I bought the car and before I managed to get the registered keeper details changed into my name. A very unfortunate coincidence and hence why they both arrived on my doormat on the same day.
As for the speed awareness, the area is Essex Police and it states in the conditional fixed penalty letter that they offer speed awareness but not when:


A course is not offered for this offence, which this offence would offer a course
You have completed NDORS already, which I haven't as this is first time speeding
Excess speed, which it isn't.


So has the other offence been lost or is it taking longer because it is possibly being processed differently to take into consideration driver awareness training offer.


Like I said before, my main concern is it has been lost and I'm going to be hit with a bigger penalty for failure to respond inside the 28 days, when in fact I did respond.


Thanks

DoaM

ivington wrote: »

A course is not offered for this offence, which this offence would offer a course
You have completed NDORS already, which I haven't as this is first time speeding
Excess speed, which it isn't.

They look like a list of exceptions as to WHY a course hasn't been offered ... is there not a tick or cross marked next to one of them?

Excess speed - well, it is; anything over the posted limit is excess speed.

Usual guidelines (that most forces follow) is to issue a NIP for any speed detected at Limit + 10% + 2 MPH. So in a 40 limit they'd issue a NIP for any speed at 46 MPH or higher. (Which would be 50+ MPH on your speedo). Hence why I thought your speeds (as posted) would fall into the SAC territory (or at least one of them anyway).

However these are only guidelines - they're not hard-and-fast rules that all forces must follow. A detected speed of +1 MPH over the posted limit is still subject to a NIP if the force desires.