Speeding offence

robinsonad86

The company I have worked for have today received an intention to prosecute from Devon & Cornwall Police for the offence of driving at 82mph in a 70 on the M5.

At the time of the alleged offence I would have been the driver of the vehicle which is a leased car so we were expecting the fine to come through as we had received an admin charge last week from the lease company.

My query is the date of the offence is May 3rd 2025 and the date of the notice to ourselves is 2nd June so Monday of this week which would be just over 4 weeks gap. I know if it was a personal vehicle there is a 2 week cut off for receiving the first letter but is it different for lease vehicles? Is there any point in trying to appeal based on timeframes? I know in the meantime we have to contact the police naming the driver but just wondered where we stand

Mark_d

The 14 day rule does not apply if the vehicle caught speeding was a hire car or company car, with the motorist behind the wheel at the time typically being harder to identify within the time period.

robinsonad86

Thanks for clarifying

TadleyBaggie

Not quite correct, the police still have to serve a NIP to the registered keeper (maybe the lease company, possibly a finance company) within 14 days. If they failed to do that, then there would be defence to the speeding offence.

Any subsequent NIPs have no fixed time limit to be served.

Deep_Space_Niner

The police have 14 days to send the NIP to the keeper registered with the DVLA. The keeper then has 28 days to nominate the driver so it would be impossible to NIP the driver within 14 days if the driver was not the keeper. I have known some vehicles where the vehicle was leased to another company who then sub leases it on to the driver but these are mostly company or hire cars. There is a time limit to send a NIP to the driver but its about 4 or 5 months. This is to give the police time to do court files if the driver does not pay the fine. At 82 on motorway you might be eligable for a course but you would have to do the course within 4 months of the offence.

TooManyPoints

There is a time limit to send a NIP to the driver

As I said above, if the Registered Keeper was not the driver, there is no obligation to serve a NIP on the driver at all.

The law (s1 of the Road Traffic Offenders' Act) says that, unless the driver was warned at the time, the police must serve a NIP on either the driver or the Registered Keeper within 14 days. Since they invariably do not know who the driver was, that NIP normally goes to the RK. And that's it as far as the requirement to serve a NIP goes.

Of course there is also the "Request for Driver's Details" to consider. This is usually referred to as  a "Section 172 request" (after the section of the Road Traffic Act that provides for it)  This is often printed on the same sheet of paper as the NIP, but it is a separate document subject to different legislation.

There is no time limit to serve a s172 request. But since, for most motoring offences, the police must begin court proceedings within six months of the date of the offence and the recipient has 28 days to respond, they will usually make sure the final one is sent within four months from the date of the offence so as to give them time to begin proceedings. 

NIPs subsequent to the first one are usually provided (mainly because the system that produces the s172 requests produces a NIP as well). But they are as a courtesy only and are not required by law.

Not all offences require a NIP to be served. Allegations of the use of a mobile phone whilst driving, for example, does not. But once again, a NIP will normally be sent simply because the police must send a s172 request to find out who was driving, and a NIP is normally produced at the same time.

robinsonad86

So if work were to name me as the driver can I wait for the inevitable paperwork to arrive and then request information on when the NIP was served? Assume I could also contact the lease company to see when they received it? The fact we only received the admin fee last week is giving me a small amount of hope that the two week window may have been missed

Aretnap

robinsonad86 said:

So if work were to name me as the driver can I wait for the inevitable paperwork to arrive and then request information on when the NIP was served? Assume I could also contact the lease company to see when they received it? The fact we only received the admin fee last week is giving me a small amount of hope that the two week window may have been missed

Don't get your hopes up too high.

The police will only have a record of when it was posted. It's presumed to be served (ie delivered) two working days later unless you can prove otherwise.

The original NIP will have been posted in time to arrive within the 14 day deadline - the computer system doesn't allow it to be generated late, at least not without a manual override and an explanation of the delay being entered into the system.

Most likely the lease company will just have been a little slow in invoicing for the admin fee. You could certainly contact the lease company and see if they have a record of when it was actually delivered, but it's a pound to a penny that it was delivered on time.

TooManyPoints

So if work were to name me as the driver can I wait for the inevitable paperwork to arrive and then request information on when the NIP was served?

You can request what you like. However, you are likely to be offered a course for that speed (provided you have not done one in the last three years -  fixed penalty if you have), The police are unlikely to enter into much by way of dialogue with you. The idea of these out-of-court remedies is that you must accept the allegation as it stands.

Of course you can make enquiries elsewhere. You will have o find out who the RK is (it may no be the lease company) and ask them when they received he NIP. It is deemed "served" two days after posting. If it was indeed served late the onus is on you to prove it to the court's satisfaction.

Whatever you decide to do about the speeding allegation, you must respond to the request for driver's details within the 28 days allowed.

Grey_Critic

Just take the hit when it comes. Trying to play the system will cost more as some found when they asked for the calibration certificate