Disqualified from driving for speeding. How do I appeal?

SlavicPirate

Evening everyone!

I found out yesterday, I have been disqualified for driving because of two speeding camera situations.
A girl, current tenant to my old address messaged me on Facebook, telling about it.
Not sure if she’s even entitled to actually handle and open my post.
Agency told her they couldn’t reach me, and funny thing is they casually email me anyway.
I received the first notice in April and the second one never arrived, but it’s from May.
I know all dates because I called all authorities yesterday.
In June I’ve moved house and court has been sending letter regarding court hearings.
I’ve had no idea there is a case going on against me, and as a result I haven’t attended to any hearing.
My licence hasn’t been taken away but I’ve been given 12 points for not providing DVLA with drivers details and not attending hearings.
Now I’m banned for 6 months and I’ve been banned since October.
I wasn’t aware of that and if I would be taken by the police, I could face 6 months in prison.
But nobody told me?
They’ve had my contact number, my email address, and my car has been insured to a new address.
My question now is, do I fight to get my right back, face the fine and possibly 9 penalty Or do I wait until April and just come back to driving as usual?
My work is based on driving, I work in events and it’s crucial for me to drive vehicles including my car and company vans.
It’s literally taking bread away from my mouth, if I’m not able to work.
Also as self employed, I’m not entitled to any support.

If I decide to re appeal, do I pledge guilty or do I say that I don’t actually remember ?
Are there any free legal advisors you could possibly recommend ?
I’ve spoken to court and to the Citizen Advicor, both gave me numbers for free help, but all solicitors told me, there is no need for a legal advisor as it’s all up to me what I decide.
I’ve never been in such situation and I understand it isn’t easy to judge what I should do.

Any help will be very much appreciated.

Thank you, drive safely!

Natalia

nickcc

Did you notify the DVLA of your new address ? If not then it has to be your fault and nothing you can do about it. Others may have a different opinion.

Linus2864

Sounds like the original NIPs went to your old address - did you change the V5C when you moved address?


You may want to head over to the Pepipoo forums to ask about making a Statutory Declaration:


http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?


Hope this helps

SlavicPirate

Hey,

I did not notify DVLA, but the place I’m leaving in right now isn’t my permanent address.
I don’t have a contract and the landlord refuses to make one as I’m his friend and officially and lodger.
Not sure how it works, but it’s definitely my fault by not telling them about the new address.
However lady from court told me I could reopen the case because I wasn’t aware of anything.
She could be wrong.

Mercdriver

She is talking about a statutory declaration. You only have a limited amount of time to do this. As advised go to pepipoo and look for the instructions. You can post there also, but you need to register using an email that is not hotmail.

Car_54

As above. The only address change that matters is the V5C. If the police only have a registration number, that’s what tells them who to contact. If you haven’t updated it, you have only yourself to blame.
What you need to do do now is contact the court(s) and make a statutory declaration that you were unaware of the proceedings. That will annul the verdict and sentence (including the ban), but you will still face the charges. As above, the best advice is likely to be at pepipoo.com.

Mercdriver

Also see pepipoo about doing a possible plea bargain to take the 3 points for speeding on both (assuming they are 3 point offences). One will be out of time, but they haven't been known to refuse this. Pepipoo will have the information on what to do here. Basically it involves saying you will plead guilty to the speeding if they drop the fail to furnish. They can't find you guilty for speeding unless you admit it was you, but make sure you only do that if they agree to drop the FtF.

SlavicPirate

Thank you for all answers.
I’m gonna check the Pepipoo out.
Sounds like a good idea.
I am definitely guilty about the first one, but I’ve never seen any letter regarding the second one and it should arrive by the time I still lived at my old place.
As they never provided me with the letter I can’t be guilty for this.
I’ll try my best to defend myself.
Anyone ever heard of suspending convictions due to work situation?
I’ve read, if I need driving for work it could be suspended until the case is reopened and closed again.

soolin

SlavicPirate wrote: »

Thank you for all answers.
I’m gonna check the Pepipoo out.
Sounds like a good idea.
I am definitely guilty about the first one, but I’ve never seen any letter regarding the second one and it should arrive by the time I still lived at my old place.
As they never provided me with the letter I can’t be guilty for this.
I’ll try my best to defend myself.
Anyone ever heard of suspending convictions due to work situation?
I’ve read, if I need driving for work it could be suspended until the case is reopened and closed again.

Seriously, go to the site mentioned earlier

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php

Your situation is urgent, you need specialist advice as you need to deal with this now. However , not getting your mail forwarded on properly is not in itself a defence nor is needing to drive for your job, and until you get this sorted don't under any circumstances continue driving.

SlavicPirate

I went on that website and posted already.
Keep looking for similar cases.

And yes, I won't drive again until this is sorted.
I'm only affraid of facing £1000 for not changing my address.

Don't know is if better just to wait.

Car_54

SlavicPirate wrote: »

I went on that website and posted already.
Keep looking for similar cases.

And yes, I won't drive again until this is sorted.
I'm only affraid of facing £1000 for not changing my address.

Don't know is if better just to wait.

No-one ever gets prosecuted for not changing their address. Even if you did, it would be an income-related fine, so only £1,000 if you had a very good salary.

What you really need to be afraid of is the failure to furnish charges: 6 points each and an offence code that will make insurance very expensive for five years.

You can’t afford to wait, there’s a strict time limit for making a stat dec.