Advice Needed – Speeding Ticket & Court Hearing next week

ThorOdinson

I'd focus on the fact that your pled guilty to speeding as you do not wish to escape punishment, but the failure to update your address was a genuine mistake. Hope the judge is sympathetic.

Car_54

Neo14 said:

Can I raise the following points in my defence/mitigation at the hearing. I also have written proof to support each of these points below:

1. I have a history of co-operating in the past — for a previous speeding ticket I responded straight away and attended the speed awareness course.

2. Ongoing health issues in my family — my wife had an operation the same month.

3. Generally a clean driving history — apart from these two speeding matters, I have no other speeding offences in 12 years (since got the liscense).

4. I work full time as a doctor with a very busy schedule and often move house. I genuinely forgot to update my V5C after moving this time, I have learnt from this and will be careful in future .

Can I actually read my written defence in court (rather than relying on memory, and talking), as for sure I’ll be quite nervous speaking?

1. Is merely what you are required to do. It doesn't win any prizes.

2. How did that stop you from notifying DVLA?

3. You're not defending a driving charge, so it's irrelevant. BTW how do you have "written proof " of an absence of offences?

4. That is not a defence. It's a feeble excuse.

Yes, you can read your defence. But you have no defence to read!

As above, try to do the deal.. If you can't , then pleading guilty will be the cheapest way forward.

TooManyPoints

Hope the judge is sympathetic.

The judge (or more probably the Bench of three Magistrates) cannot be "sympathetic" if the charge remains and results in a conviction. The offence carries six points,  a hefty fine and an insurance-crippling endorsement code (MS90). 

The OP must concentrate on persuading the prosecutor to drop that charge..

Neo14

I don’t have much experience (actually none at all) with court. By “prosecutor,” I’m presuming it means the lawyer who will be presenting the case against me? Any tips on how I should approach them to try and get the failing to provide details charge dropped?

LightFlare

The “usual” process is to approach the clerk of the court before your case is heard and ask them to approach the prosecution side with your offer to plead guilty of speeding IF they drop the ftf charge.

Not sure if that will work in your case if you have already pled guilty to the speeding - typically they can’t charge both but it depends on exactly what you have received,said and done up to now

Car_54

LightFlare said:

The “usual” process is to approach the clerk of the court before your case is heard and ask them to approach the prosecution side with your offer to plead guilty of speeding IF they drop the ftf charge.

Not sure if that will work in your case if you have already pled guilty to the speeding - typically they can’t charge both but it depends on exactly what you have received,said and done up to now

That is very far from "usual", and I doubt whether the "clerk" (nowadays the legal adviser) would assist. It is not part of his job.

The normal advice is to ask an usher to point out the prosecutor dealing with motoring cases.

TooManyPoints

,,,typically they can’t charge both…

 Yes they can. They are two separate offences committed at least a month apart. 

Not only can they both be charged, but they can both result in a conviction (but only if the defendant pleads guilty to speeding as there would be is no evidence he was driving). 

That said, most prosecutors take a pragmatic approach and treat the two effectively as alternatives. In fact, some courts have taken to informing the defendant of this by saying “if you plead guilty to one the other will be dropped” (or similar). 

The OP’s position is quite straightforward: he has an SJPN listing both offences. He has to tread more carefully than most because of his guilty plea to speeding, but I believe an approach to the prosecutor will see he desired result. 

Neo14 – if you are unable to see the prosecutor before being called into court, you should be asked to confirm your pleas when you are called in. At this stage you can explain to the court what has happened (failed to update V5C) and ask if it would be necessary to formally change your guilty plea to speeding to not guilty so as to make your offer. 

It is common practice for both charges to be laid in your circumstances and all court users are familiar with the process of pleading guilty to speeding on the condition that the FtP is dropped. It is rarely, if ever, declined (I only know of one instance). Your only complication is your unconditional guilty plea to speeding but I believe with a bit of careful negotiation (and a sensible prosecutor) you should be able to get round that.

Arklight

Obvs don't want to make assumptions, but if you're a doctor, can you not afford a solicitor to get actual advice that might possibly be accurate? 

Rather than the mess of internet legal beagles all falling over themselves to contradict one another. 

I've read all these responses and I can't make head nor tail of it. 

As this would seem to be a rather common scenario ( I'd moved house for months once until I had the sudden epiphany I'd neither updated my V5C or my driving license address), could you report back on what happens?

TooManyPoints

I've read all these responses and I can't make head nor tail of it. 

What is it you don't understand?

Okell

Arklight said:

Obvs don't want to make assumptions, but if you're a doctor, can you not afford a solicitor to get actual advice that might possibly be accurate?..

If the OP is frequently changing his address he is quite likely to be what is now called a resident doctor and as we all know they are so badly paid that they have to be continually threatening to go on strike...

Arklight said:

... can you not afford a solicitor to get actual advice that might possibly be accurate? 

Rather than the mess of internet legal beagles all falling over themselves to contradict one another. 

I've read all these responses and I can't make head nor tail of it...

What haven't you understood?

Apart from (1) the very first response from daveyjp which was completely irrelevant to the OP's situation; (2) a possibly facetious suggestion that the OP stop speeding; (3) a couple of suggestions that the OP set up postal redirection for future address changes; and (4) a mistaken statement by Lightflare that the prosecution can't charge both speeding and FTF, all the other comments seem both to have correctly outlined the OP's legal position and to have given correct and non-contradictory advice as to how to best he should approach this. 

I think the most complete summary of the OP's position was TooManyPoint's post at 4:18pm on 30 September.

Where are the contradictions and what is there not to understand?