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Speed Awareness Course or Points?
My son has had 2 speeding notices within a 2 week period on the same stretch of road where Average Speed cameras are in force.(35mph on 30mph road)
Now the first letter came and he admitted driving the car as you have to do.
However the second letter came whilst was still awaiting the outcome of the first incident.(39mph on 30mph)
Now the first reply has came back offering him a speed awareness course rather then points which he will take.
But because the second enforcement came without him realising he had gotten the first one he's now wondering would they take that into consideration as he hadn't actually had the first warning before the second one arrived?
If he had the first letter and offer of the speed awareness course then obviously he would of been more aware then to commit the second offence.
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Why does he need to be made aware he shouldn't be doing 39 in a 30. His speedo would have been reading well into the 40s at the time?
This from another thread:-
The police will consider the following grounds when assessing your eligibility for the driver awareness course:
.As quoted above you can’t repeat the course within 3 years . So if he gets caught speeding again within 3 years , it will be more points each time .
Please note: There's no legal entitlement to a course, these are offered at the sole discretion of police, and the courts have no powers over courses. If an offer for a course is made to you, the police can withdraw the offer at any time before the course has been successfully completed.
Given this is the same location (and therefore same force) it's not unknown for a second offence to flag and the offer of a SAC for the initial offence to be rescinded
And @gbu_2 are you seriously suggesting he should be let off on the second offence because he didn't know he'd been caught first time - if so suggest he takes it to court as a defence and let the Magistrate have a laugh
Really? I have never known such an occurrence. In fact it could be argued that it is an abuse of process. Whilst there is no entitlement to a course, once one is offered, along with the promise that no other action (either out-of-court or prosecution) would take place provided the course was paid for and taken in the required timescale, it would be perverse to withdraw that offer simply on the basis that a second offence had been committed.
There is always debate about multiple offences and the argument often goes that a driver should be given a chance to modify his behaviour once a transgression has been brought to his attention and that any more offences committed before he has been notified of the first should somehow be "rolled up" together. That is essentially what is being argued here and it's nonsense. A driver should know that he must not exceed the speed limit. If he doesn't he should not be driving at all. He should not need reminding or require re-education. Awareness courses have no legal standing and it is arguable that the police are actually abrogating their responsibility to properly enforce the law by either prosecuting offenders or offering a fixed penalty (which is permitted under statute).
If I was cynical I might suggest that the reason the police are keen to offer awareness courses instead of fixed penalties might be because instead of £100 being paid to the Exchequer, a similar sum is shared between the police and the course provider. If I was really cynical I might liken the practice to the police taking a bribe not to prosecute a matter. But I couldn't possibly consider either of those as credible. Could I?