Court summons in a different name for driving without due care

drmacf007

To my dismay, I now get a letter mentioning court summons,@ A magistrate has decided that you should be summoned for a full court hea

marcia_

drmacf007 said:

sorry guys, trying to find the right forum
Apologies, if you have read this before 

Hi,
Hope all are fine. Been a roller coaster for me, now with a court summons. The offence seems familiar but the name and date of birth are completely different. 
Basically in winter was driving late at night on the motorway. It was raining and visibility was bad, so slowed down. Seems there were cops trailing me for a while and got pulled over for driving like 40mph . Apologized and accepted my fault and they sent a Fixed terms penalty notice. Paid the fine for 100 quid but forgot to  send my license. Seems like the police sent me a reminder but that again was lost in the pile of junk mail. That week was the worst on my personal front, with wife taken to AE
I then received a Single justice procedure notice , which I replied, explained the above and apologized. I write a long letter, explaining how things went wrong and how my work would get affected, without a license ( I was a prominent covid fighter at my hospital, with one of the few staff members who worked through the pandemic)I also explained that the reminder letter was missed as I was away working, while my wife was in hospital with chest pain. Ended by apologizing and  hoping to pay the same 100 quid fine and receive the 3 points penalty

To my dismay, I now get a letter mentioning court summons,  stating reason_ Not appropriate for single justice procedure.Summoned to attend  court . Penalty would be endorsement on me license

All seems to match except that  the name and dob is of someone completely different. 
Do you think they have made an error and it's not me? Slim chance but hoping

If it's me, how bad is it looking? Somewhere I read that driving without care and attention max is 9 points and 5K fine. 
Will there be a criminal record? For health care workers, it's an enhanced dbs, so will have to inform me bosses
Think it's time to consult a Solicitor...just can't believe this. Seems  they are out to get me. In 25 years, never been stopped by cops, no record and zero points on my license. Now I am dragged to court. May be the magistrate has taken a sympathetic view, due to my past record and has summoned me to let me go?? I am just dreaming, clutching at straws

KR

Mel

 Highly likely it's an error if it's not your name and details on the summons so you don't have to attend Court. 

 Query it with the Court directly. 

Car_54

As the letter is not addressed to you, it's not for you. Send it back, with a covering letter (just "Not me", not the whole story.)

For the police to offer a fixed penalty, they must have considered the offence to be at the low end of the scale. For a SJ to refer a case to a full hearing, he would have to conclude the opposite, and consider a ban might be appropriate. That seems unlikely, so probably indeed a mistake.

Keep_pedalling

Call the court on Monday morning to sort out the mistake. If it turns out your case is going to court, then you are better off posting on the FTLA forum as they specialise in criminal cases.

https://www.ftla.uk/speeding-and-other-criminal-offences/

You also need to be careful in what you put in writing to the court, what you might think are mitigating circumstances could be interpreted rather differently by the magistrate and actually make things worse for you. The fact that you were pleading not to be banned suggests you already have points on your licence so face a totting up ban is that the case? 

LightFlare

Wasn’t there a very similar post a while ago about someone getting pulled for driving slowly on a motorway at night ?

Keep_pedalling

Car_54 said:

As the letter is not addressed to you, it's not for you. Send it back, with a covering letter (just "Not me", not the whole story.)

I would not do that, ring the court on Monday to get this sorted this is too important to leave to the post.

For the police to offer a fixed penalty, they must have considered the offence to be at the low end of the scale. For a SJ to refer a case to a full hearing, he would have to conclude the opposite, and consider a ban might be appropriate. That seems unlikely, so probably indeed a mistake.

The most likely reason the OPs case being shifted to a court appearance is that a topping up ban.

As per my reply to your duplicate thread you will get better advice on criminal offences over on the FTLA forum.

https://www.ftla.uk/speeding-and-other-criminal-offences/

AFAIK a driving without DC & A offence is not serious enough to show up on any background checks. 

elsien

Duplicate thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6533410/court-summons-in-a-different-name-for-driving-without-due-care#latest

Probably better to ask for them to be merged So everything is in the one place.

Keep_pedalling

drmacf007 said:

Yes, it's 'me too' 
Got the remainder post
They have sent out two letters, one for me and one for another chap!  To my address

Anyone can recommend a good traffic solicitor
both for advise and to represent me in court 
How much do they usually charge? 

A solicitor is just going to charge you money and is unlikely to get you off. Go to the forum I gave above, but give them more details of the offence than you have done here (dates, reasons you were pulled over). Speak to the court first though, this could simply be that they have put the wrong address in the letter and is the other guy who has to go to court not you.

elsien

OP  says there are two letters and one is for him. So as you’ve already said it sounds more like extra points leading to a possible ban. 

With regards the DBS, my understanding is it shows up on an enhanced one if it’s a serious motoring offence that carries a custodial sentence. No idea whether yours falls into that category or not. 

user1977

A summons which has a completely different name on it can't be effective against you. Of course, the most likely next step is that they fix it and serve a correct one on you.

elsien

Their other thread clarifies that there is another summons in their own name as well as the one that got sent by mistake.