Court summons for speeding fine

Milo2020

Hi there
In Nov last year, I was unfortunate enough to receive two speeding tickets. One I paid the fine and one I booked on the speed awareness course. Fast forward 6 months and I’ve just received a court summons for one of the offences.

I have proof of payment for the fine which was never refunded and proof I attended the NDORS course in March. I pleaded not guilty therefore to the court summons and really hope with proof of payment this will suffice. Does anybody have any experience of this or advice as to any further action I should take?

Thanks

TadleyBaggie

Did you send your licence off as well, what does your driver licence record say on the DVLA?

wgl2014

Did you send your licence off after paying the fine?

If not they refund the payment and take you to court as you failed to comply with the cofp.

TooManyPoints

You need to find out if your licence has been endorsed with three points (which you can do online). If it has not then the two answers above provide the probable explanation.

If that is the case you need to change your plea. I imagine you have received a "Single Justice Procedure Notice" rather than a summons. If you don't change your plea, your case will be taken out of the SJ process and listed for a hearing in the ordinary Magistrates' court. Along with your change of plea you should ask to be sentenced at the Fixed Penalty level. The court has guidance which says this:

Where a penalty notice could not be offered or taken up for reasons unconnected with the offence itself, such as administrative difficulties outside the control of the offender, the starting point should be a fine equivalent to the amount of the penalty and no order of costs should be imposed. The offender should not be disadvantaged by the unavailability of the penalty notice in these circumstances.

Whilst strictly speaking the "difficulty" was your fault, most courts will be sympathetic to your request. You should be fined £70 with £30 levied as a "Victim Surcharge". (The court cannot waive the VS so a reduced fine keeps the total to £100). At worst they may charge you some or all of the normal prosecution costs (£85).

First of all, though, check your driving record online.

a.turner

TooManyPoints wrote: »

You need to find out if your licence has been endorsed with three points (which you can do online). If it has not then the two answers above provide the probable explanation.

If that is the case you need to change your plea. I imagine you have received a "Single Justice Procedure Notice" rather than a summons. If you don't change your plea, your case will be taken out of the SJ process and listed for a hearing in the ordinary Magistrates' court. Along with your change of plea you should ask to be sentenced at the Fixed Penalty level. The court has guidance which says this:

Where a penalty notice could not be offered or taken up for reasons unconnected with the offence itself, such as administrative difficulties outside the control of the offender, the starting point should be a fine equivalent to the amount of the penalty and no order of costs should be imposed. The offender should not be disadvantaged by the unavailability of the penalty notice in these circumstances.

Whilst strictly speaking the "difficulty" was your fault, most courts will be sympathetic to your request. You should be fined £70 with £30 levied as a "Victim Surcharge". (The court cannot waive the VS so a reduced fine keeps the total to £100). At worst they may charge you some or all of the normal prosecution costs (£85).

First of all, though, check your driving record online.

Strictly speaking if the licence wasn't sent off why should the court bend their guidelines to assist the offender?

TooManyPoints

Strictly speaking if the licence wasn't sent off why should the court bend their guidelines to assist the offender?

They don't have to but they usually do. It's at their discretion. They have an old saying (of which they are often reminded, especially by defence advocates) that they are "guidelines" not "tramlines".

a.turner

TooManyPoints wrote: »

They don't have to but they usually do. It's at their discretion. They have an old saying (of which they are often reminded, especially by defence advocates) that they are "guidelines" not "tramlines".

And of course you've seen this happen multiple times. Makes you wonder how you've got time to do your day job with all the time you spend in the motoring court. No wonder our public sector is in such a state.

Joe_Horner

a.turner wrote: »

And of course you've seen this happen multiple times. Makes you wonder how you've got time to do your day job with all the time you spend in the motoring court. No wonder our public sector is in such a state.

Give it a rest, it's getting boring now.

Toomanypoints' advice is the best chance the OP has of getting through this without additional penalty. Full admission of mistake (the speeding and the neglecting to include licence if that is what happened) and asking for clemency may or may not work, but no other approach is going to so it's the sensible choice.

TooManyPoints

Thanks for the support, JH.

And of course you've seen this happen multiple times. Makes you wonder how you've got time to do your day job with all the time you spend in the motoring court. No wonder our public sector is in such a state.

Yes I've seen it multiple times (that's how I know about it), you know nothing about whether I have a day job, what it is or how long it takes me and I don't see what the performance of the public sector has to do with me. I've tried being polite and it simply doesn't work. I hope you get some help with your problem.

Milo, if I can be of any further help do let me know. Hopefully we can correspond uninterrupted by fractious drivel.

a.turner

TooManyPoints wrote: »

Yes I've seen it multiple times (that's how I know about it), you know nothing about whether I have a day job or what it is and I don't see what the performance of the public sector has to do with me. I've tried being polite and it simply doesn't work.

Milo, if I can be of any further help do let me know.

I know all about your day job thanks.

Mercdriver

a.turner wrote: »

And of course you've seen this happen multiple times. Makes you wonder how you've got time to do your day job with all the time you spend in the motoring court. No wonder our public sector is in such a state.

Yawn.

Go and tell that to the people on pepipoo where this advice is given regularly and is based on experience, not half arsed opinion. See how long you last on a forum that is moderated.