Speeding Fine 6 month Rule

Kerryi28

Hi , I was caught by a camera cam doing 79mph on a motorway on May 4th last year.

It’s a lease car and by the time it reached me and I admitted I was the driver they didn’t send the conditional offer of fixed penalty notice until 6th November that is date of the letter. 

I ignored the letter but then I had a letter in December to say they are starting proceedings against me.

i rang the police and they gave me an extra month to pay and I now have tuntil
17th of this month to pay.

can they still
take me to court as on the phone they said that they have 6 months from the conditional offer they have sent me

HumberFlyer

You've already posted this at 3.39 pm

Car_54

The police must start court proceedings within six moths of the offence. Nothing to do with the COFP.

Unless the offence was in Scotland. There the limit was extended to 12 months during Covid. AFAIK that still stands.

TooManyPoints

There the limit was extended to 12 months during Covid. AFAIK that still stands.

That extension was rescinded on 1st October 2022. It's now back to six months.

There is a slight difference in Scotland to do with cases where a fixed penalty has been offered but it certainly does not give the police six months from the date of the offer to begin proceedings. In E&W it is straightforward - six months from the date of the offence is the deadline. So if the offence was in E&W the offence had "Timed out" before the offer of a fixed penalty was made.

facade

They can't prosecute the speeding.

But they can prosecute failing to name the driver, they have 6 months from when the S172 was sent.

Did you definitely return the S172 notice addressed to you with a signed admission that you were the driver within the 28 days?

If it was a combined S172/COFP they are sneaky, as you apparently can't reply to just the S172, so a signed & dated letter stating that you were the driver should be attached to the combined form and it returned, or you could fill in the "Take me to court then ( if you can)" section I suppose...

TooManyPoints

But they can prosecute failing to name the driver, they have 6 months from when the S172 was sent.

But if they had no evidence of the driver's identity, why would they send a COFP to the OP?:

It’s a lease car and by the time it reached me and I admitted I was the driver they didn’t send the conditional offer of fixed penalty notice until 6th November that is date of the letter. 

And why would they have given him another month to accept that penalty?:

i rang the police and they gave me an extra month to pay and I now have tuntil 17th of this month to pay.

facade

TooManyPoints said:

But they can prosecute failing to name the driver, they have 6 months from when the S172 was sent.

But if they had no evidence of the driver's identity, why would they send a COFP to the OP?:

It’s a lease car and by the time it reached me and I admitted I was the driver they didn’t send the conditional offer of fixed penalty notice until 6th November that is date of the letter. 

Don't some areas send out a combined S172/COFP, worded so you either dob someone else in, or admit it is you and accept the COFP at the same time (or opt for straight to court)

TooManyPoints

Don't some areas send out a combined S172/COFP, worded so you either dob someone else in, or admit it is you and accept the COFP at the same time (or opt for straight to court)

As far as I know only Avon & Somerset do that (it's known as their "Super NIP"). But from the OP's account it seems it was a two stage process:

It’s a lease car and by the time it reached me and I admitted I was the driver they didn’t send the conditional offer of fixed penalty notice until 6th November that is date of the letter. 

But I agree, it is a possibility. It would be helpful if the OP could tell us exactly what he has received.

Kerryi28

HumberFlyer said:

You've already posted this at 3.39 pm

I posted it in parking tickets and fines by accident

Kerryi28

This is what I received on 6 th November after they had sent me the notice of fixed penalty offer which I had received after I filled in the form saying I was the driver.
ive left that form at work unfortunately but I did reply to them and admit

Kerryi28

Sorry just noticed it is a 58 in a 50, I had another one  within 3 weeks of each other from a different branch of police .