Police letter says I excide speed over 30 miles in London what is nearly impossible 21 July 2022 at 10:35PM in Motoring 35 replies 2.5K views

TRUTHSEEKER

Hi 
I have Met police letter that they capture my speed over 30 miles above a limit. Now they trying to push me to book a course to learn the danger of speeding or I'll be charged 1000£ or more.
I know my style of driving and I don't believe I could drive in London such a speedy, is clearly some error. How to challenge this?

rigolith

You could try asking them for a photo, to help you determine who was driving. That will then give you an idea of where it was and the likelihood that you are exceeding 30 MPH.

If you were not speeding, the problem is going to be proving it. Police speed traps are not very reliable, but the court will consider that to be strong evidence.

If you have a dashcam with GPS speedometer you could try to introduce that to cast doubt on the police evidence. It's not guaranteed to work though.

Basically it's a stitch up, the system is designed to make it difficult for the innocent. It might be best to just do the course and remember to slam on the brakes next time you see a suspicious van.

forgotmyname

30mph over the limit and only offered a course?

Challenge it by proving the speed is incorrect.

unforeseen

Based on the rest of the OP's grammar I think OP might actually mean over the 30mph limit

photome

What speed do they say you were doing

MattMattMattUK

unforeseen said:

Based on the rest of the OP's grammar I think OP might actually mean over the 30mph limit

I agree, there is no way someone would be offered a speed awareness course when exceeding the speed limit by 30mph. I suspect the "1000£" fine may be the refusing to respond fine, not the fine for the offence itself. I suspect that the OP does not have English as a first language and has misread or misunderstood the correspondence. 

Adding to that it is not "impossible" to exceed the speed limit in London by 30mph, there are plenty of places where it could happen. If they have already said that it was them driving they should have been sent the pictures of the vehicle and be able to count the markings on the road to confirm their speed.

Browntoa

As someone who drove for many years in the city of London and east towards the blackwall tunnel there are many places I could have driven must faster then 30mph . Particularly outside of the rush hour .

I suspect that the OP has fallen foul of one of the many many speed cameras or average speed areas 

Robin9

@TRUTHSEEKER    Take the course - avoid the fine, avoid the penalties and you may not need to notify your insurers.   There's a  lot to learn on the course -  been there, wear the T shirt.

Herzlos

They should have given you a time and location, so you can always look at street view to see where it was and how fast you may have been going.
A course would only be offered if you were just over the 30 limit, so it's probably worth doing to avoid you accidentally creeping over the 30 limit again.

venomx

As above, speed awareness course. Be thankful they offered that to you. Next time as you well know, always keep an eye on your speed and what the limit is. I know it can be difficult in an area you don't know with variable speed limits 

SiliconChip

unforeseen said:

Based on the rest of the OP's grammar I think OP might actually mean over the 30mph limit

I suspect that the OP has misunderstood the NIP, it almost certainly is exceeding 30MPH but they have read it as driving at more than 30MPH over the limit, based on the comment "...I don't believe I could drive in London such a speedy (sic)". We all know it would be possible to drive at 35MPH but driving at 60MPH in a 30MPH zone would be more difficult to achieve and couldn't really be done through inattention.