Speeding fine refunded, referred to court!

Craig157

I received a fixed penalty for speeding, which marked my first offense. I was caught driving at 56 mph in a 40 mph zone and, unfortunately, I wasn't given the option of attending a speed awareness course. In response, I promptly paid the fine of £100 and received 3 penalty points on my license.

Approximately a month later, I unexpectedly received a refund of the fine and a letter indicating that the matter had been referred to the court. I later discovered that this happened because I failed to provide a copy of my license. I had assumed that showing it to the officer on the day was sufficient and didn't realize additional documentation was required.

Recently, I received an email notifying me that the fine has been increased to £744, and I will now receive 4 penalty points instead of the initial 3. I'm curious if such a significant increase is permissible for a relatively minor oversight on my part.

Can I contest this? Please help.

Thanks.

sammyjammy

You know it was on oversight but they don't! I would imagine the place to contest it is in court.

Keep_pedalling

56 in a 40 is a band B offence which means 4-7 points + a fine equal to one weeks pay if it goes to court.

Making assumptions is never a legal defence, if you had actually read the paperwork your would have seen you needed to return your licence. 

facade

Craig157 said:

I received a fixed penalty for speeding, which marked my first offense. I was caught driving at 56 mph in a 40 mph zone and, unfortunately, I wasn't given the option of attending a speed awareness course. In response, I promptly paid the fine of £100 and received 3 penalty points on my license.

Approximately a month later, I unexpectedly received a refund of the fine and a letter indicating that the matter had been referred to the court. I later discovered that this happened because I failed to provide a copy of my license. I had assumed that showing it to the officer on the day was sufficient and didn't realize additional documentation was required.

Recently, I received an email notifying me that the fine has been increased to £744, and I will now receive 4 penalty points instead of the initial 3. I'm curious if such a significant increase is permissible for a relatively minor oversight on my part.

Can I contest this? Please help.

Thanks.

The time to contest it would have been at the court hearing. Now that you have been sentenced it is very difficult to appeal it- and there are little grounds as you failed to comply with the conditions of the fixed penalty offer, and the alternate sentence followed CPS guidelines..

Did you not receive any paperwork about the court*? surely you had the chance to enter a plea, and provide migration (accepting the fixed penalty is a way to settle the matter out of court, it isn't an admission of guilt so you would have to be told the reason that the case was brought, and be given the chance to plead not guilty)

The mitigation would have been a request to receive a sentence equivalent to the fixed penalty that was refused due to an administrative error (on your part, so no guarantee that they would agree)

* Actually, an SJPN- Single Justice Procedure Notice. A closed court where magistrates deal with a mountain of minor offences pretty much with a rubber stamp if they plead guilty. You only attend if they want to ban you, as they have to tell you to your face that you are banned.

TooManyPoints

Did you not receive a "Single Justice Procedure Notice"? If you did, did you respond to it?

Whether you can get your case revisited depends on whether or not  you were aware of the proceedings against you and if you were, whether and how you responded. So what, if anything, did you receive apart from the refund of your FP? 

Craig157

Thanks everyone. I did plea and they have ignored my reason and issued me with the above.

TooManyPoints

So:

• You knew of the proceedings against you.
• You entered a plea (Presumably guilty).
• You explained your mitigation

With all that before the court, you were sentenced accordingly.

I take it that the "fine" of £744 you mention includes a Victim Surcharge and prosecution costs. The only issue then is the level of fine. If the total is £744 it seems you were fined on the basis of an income of £700pw. This would be as follows:

Basic fine (one week's net income):      £700
- One third discount for a guilty plea:    £233

Fine after discount:                                £467
Victim Surcharge (40%):                       £187 
Prosecution Costs:                                  £90 
Total:                                                      £744

Did you provide the court with details of your income?

ontheroad1970

You can appeal the sentence while maintaining the guilty plea, you could try your luck at administrative errors unconnected with the offence, though if you didn't follow instructions on the Fixed Penalty Notice, you might struggle