Court summons in a different name for driving without due care

ontheroad1970

The mitigating statement if stated like you have here would have led them to believe you wanted to fight the charge, in spite of your guilty plea.  So as you say, don't say anything that might be seen as any form of defence.  Just ask them to consider what TMP and myself suggested. 

Car_54

user1977 said:

drmacf007 said:

1) To the Police chief, seeking clarifications on how this happened. Also asking for information on Police file about me, under the Freedom of Information act 2001.

I'd very much hope they would release nothing at all about you under the Freedom of Information Act, as that relates to non-confidential information which public authorities are obliged to publish. You probably meant a Data Subject Access Request.

Indeed. And information relating to criminal proceedings is exempted from the obligation to disclose.

TooManyPoints

So I won't dwell on the incident itself, or try and give ' my side of the story/excuses'  Such as it was raining heavily, dark and possible surface water.

No don't. Just accept the prosecution's version of events.

Just say, I apologize and plead guilty and it won't happen again.

Yes

From the description of some of your responses to this I imagine that somewhere along the line the SJ got the impression that your guilty plea was not "unequivocal". For example, if you said something like "I'm pleading guilty but I don't really think I should be prosecuted" then there is a possibility that your plea would not be accepted. Other than in some circumstances which I won't go into here, if there is any reason to doubt that your plea was sincere and unconditional I can easily see the SJ refusing to handle your case. In any event, it doesn't matter. Just make it clear that your guilty plea is unconditional.

ontheroad1970

No.  Just keep it straightforward guilty plea while asking nicely for the fixed penalty equivalent for the reasons given above.

Ayr_Rage

You asked for opinions, so here is mine.

Spectacularly overdid it.

Admit guilt.

Admit the mistake of sending licence to the wrong place and assuming the points had been added as you had paid the penalty.

However, having knowledge of the final notice, losing it and then not chasing it up does look bad.

Don't mention not having offended anyone, broken the law etc, we all probably have in our lives.

Don't mention Covid.

Do mention that your licence is required for your work and ask for the original penalty due to your mistakes and the small mitigation of being away for work and your wife's health scare.

Good luck!

LightFlare

drmacf007 said:

I managed to trace my mitigating statement. Cut and pasted it below ...did I overdo it?

Respected Sir,

After driving for nearly 12 years without any incidents, one night I was stopped by the police on the M5 in December 2023. It was nearly midnight, raining heavily, and I thought there was surface water. So I drove cautiously and carefully, in the left lane. 

However, the police who stopped me, informed me that I was driving around 45 mph, which could be a risk to other drivers. I accepted my mistake and when asked if I had anything to say, I immediately apologized to the police constable.

I later received a fixed-term penalty notice in the post. I accepted a fine of £100 and 3 points on my license. Please find the credit card payment details of the £100 fine. I thought I had sent the driving license, but it seemed to have been sent to the wrong address and got returned. While I presumed I had the points electronically on my license.

Later on, in April 2024, the  Police sent me a final notice. Sadly, I was away, working at Cardiff for two weeks in a row.In the meantime, my wife, who lives at the address, had to attend hospital with chest pain and uncontrolled hypertension. In the ensuing chaos, this letter went missing.

I humbly request you to please forgive me for all of this. I have never offended anyone or broken the law in the past and never would even think of doing it again.

As the only earning member of the family and as a agency temp, I need the license to drive around for work. Which could take me to any part of the country. In 2020, during the COVID pandemic, I was the only Health care worker working a full rota , without any leave of absence. 

I hereby plead guilty and am  willing to accept whatever punishment you feel is appropriate. Given that the fixed-term penalty was missed because of unfortunate events, I would be very grateful if the same conditions and fines were maintained.

I shall leave that to your discretion and hope for the best.

Kind Regards

 

I bet you have

No you weren't -- thousands of others did as well

far too over the top

Okell

drmacf007 said:

... I thought I had sent the driving license, but it seemed to have been sent to the wrong address and got returned...

 

Why did you send your licence off anywhere?  That hasn't been a requirement for over a year now so far as I'm aware.

All you needed to do was to send your licence details off when you accepted the COFP.  Did you not read the offer properly or did you not understand the conditions and instructions attached to it?

You really are making a mountain out of a molehill with this.  You aren't going to get interrogated under the third degree.  All you need to do is plead guilty, apologise and explain that you were driving slowly because you thought there may have been too much standing water to drive any more quickly.  Leave it at that.  And don't mention any rubbish about being the only person working through Covid.  That won't impress anybody

I'm a retired NHS manager and I'm pretty certain that if NHS staff were going to be sacked for minor speeding convictions then the NHS staffing crisis would be ten million times worse than it already is.  Stop catastrophising.

(I have to ask - from your user name are you actually a doctor?)

Okell

Is this your thread on FTLA which seems to have been locked?   Court summons, for driving without care and attention (ftla.uk)

("I even highlighted my role as a Covid warrior..."    )

drmacf007

Who looks at the  guilty pleas and mitigating statemen

drmacf007

Okell said:

drmacf007 said:

... I thought I had sent the driving license, but it seemed to have been sent to the wrong address and got returned...

 

Why did you send your licence off anywhere?  That hasn't been a requirement for over a year now so far as I'm aware.

All you needed to do was to send your licence details off when you accepted the COFP.  Did you not read the offer properly or did you not understand the conditions and instructions attached to it?

You really are making a mountain out of a molehill with this.  You aren't going to get interrogated under the third degree.  All you need to do is plead guilty, apologise and explain that you were driving slowly because you thought there may have been too much standing water to drive any more quickly.  Leave it at that.  And don't mention any rubbish about being the only person working through Covid.  That won't impress anybody

I'm a retired NHS manager and I'm pretty certain that if NHS staff were going to be sacked for minor speeding convictions then the NHS staffing crisis would be ten million times worse than it already is.  Stop catastrophising.

(I have to ask - from your user name are you actually a doctor?)

HCA with interest in MH