Speeding ticket

CanadianRMP

I was caught speeding in August. Paid the fine and sent my licence details off. 

On 11.11.24 i got a letter saying that I didn't fulfill all the requirements ( they never got the licence details). But they also never refunded the money. So i didnt realise that anything was amiss. So sent the letter away (recorded delivery) but they didnt prcess the letter till the 7.12.24 and the final date was 5.12.24. Therefore they ruled and fined me £700+. 

What recourse do i have against this?

CanadianRMP

Bit more detail the refund only came through on the 29.11.24. 

I admitted guilty. 

But due to the magistrates not processing the request for a court date in time, they ruled.

They have said that i can ask for the penalty to be relooked at but it will the magistrates legal team who decides if they want to.

Keep_pedalling

Best to post over on the FTLA forum who specialise in criminal motoring convictions. Please read the ‘read this first’ sticky thread before you post.

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

TooManyPoints

I'm no slouch when it comes to criminal motoring matters myself if you want to stay on here.

Bit difficult to advise properly since you only mention "letters". If you post in the same vague way on FTLA you will be met with the same response. You won't find many on there taking the time to tease information from you.

I admitted guilty.

Was that by chance in response to a "Single Justice Procedure Notice"? 

But due to the magistrates not processing the request for a court date in time, they ruled.

If it was an SJPN, did you ask for a court hearing which you could attend? (You cannot attend a SJ hearing) If so, a timeline might help (what you received and when, what it was, how and when you responded).

There is a way you might be able to get this revisited. But whether you can depends (on the above)

CanadianRMP

Yes it was a SJPN that i received and sent back but they did not process it in time. I have the receipt of when i sent it. I did ask for court hearing.

It was dayed 11.11.24. i received it on. Due to moving house i received it on 27.11.24. It was sent back to them on 29.11.24. Not sure on the date of recieving as I enter the tracking number into RM and it just says error. But i have to receipt to prove date of mailing. They did not process this till the 07.12.24. And the final date was 05.12.24.

I appreciate any help

TooManyPoints

Looking at the dates it is likely your response was either received late or not received at all.

SJPNs have to be responded to within 21 days of their date (so by 2nd December or thereabouts). The 29th November (your posting date) was a Friday so the earliest it would have been received is Monday 2nd, possibly later than that if it was delayed. Either that or (in view of the tracking info) it wasn't received at all.

Anyway, it doesn't matter - you are where you are.

If your response was not received in time (or at all) it means three things:

1. You would not have been given the benefit of a guilty plea.

2. The court would have no details of your income (on which they base the fine).

3. They would not know about your efforts to accept a fixed penalty.

To elaborate a little: 

1. You are entitled to a one third discount off any fine for a guilty plea.

2. With no information the court would use a default income figure of £440pw. You haven’t mentioned the speed/limit but if it was one which would attract a fine of one week’s net income, your figure of £700 sounds about right. It would see a fine of £440, a “victim surcharge” of £176 and prosecution costs of around £90 – so £706 in total.

3. If the court had been aware of the difficulty with the FP they may have considered fining you at that level (£100 and 3 points). They have guidance which suggests they should consider this in your circumstances.

The way to deal with this is to ask the court to re-open your case. Section 142 of the Magistrates’ Court Act gives them the power to do this. You will have to write to the court making your request and I would advise doing so as soon as possible. I suggest you address your request to “The Clerk to the Justices”. That post was actually abolished a few years ago but nobody seems to know the proper title of the post which replaced it. If you address it that way I’m sure it will find the right person.

I must warn you that you will almost certainly meet some resistance with your request. It will initially be dealt with by the court’s admin staff. They are not legally trained and are often not well acquainted with the legal niceties involved. One thing you must avoid is mentioning the word “appeal”. If you do, they will almost certainly come back telling you to appeal to the Crown Court. That is not what you want to do.

Whether or not to reopen your case is a judicial decision which must be put before the court (i.e. the Magistrates). It is not an administrative decision to be taken by anybody else. Unless your request is either manifestly frivolous or without merit (and yours is neither) you have a right to have your request put before the court. So you must persevere with this. If you post any outcome on here I’ll help further.

There is actually an alternative to this which you may like to consider. By paying your £100 and submitting your licence details you have complied with the conditions of the fixed penalty. The law (Road Traffic Offenders’ Act, section 76(2) says that in that event, no proceedings shall be brought against you. The difficulty you might have is proving that you have complied. It should not be too difficult to prove you have paid £100 but it may be more so to prove you submitted your DL details. This would mean pleading not guilty. I don’t know how much evidence you might have or whether you would consider this course.

Digest this and let me know if I can help further.