Initial hearing tomorrow – two speeding allegations / two S172 charges, no original notices received

matriarchrising

Title: Initial hearing tomorrow – two speeding allegations / two S172 charges, no original notices received. Any advice?

Hi all,

I posted about this back in March, but for the life of me I can't find the original thread. My initial hearing is tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get any last bits of advice from people who have been through something similar.

I've got two alleged speeding offences, one from September 2025 and another from 4 January 2026, along with two S172 failure to identify driver charges.

The main issue is that I never received any of the original correspondence. The first thing I received was the Single Justice Procedure Notice dated 24 February 2026. No NIPs, no requests to identify the driver, nothing beforehand.

I've lived at the same address for around ten years, and the car had been registered here for several years. We receive post normally and I've never knowingly ignored official correspondence. Had I received the requests, I would have responded.

The car was a family vehicle and both my husband and I regularly drove it.

For the January offence, I'm confident I wasn't driving. I've checked my messages and records from that day, and I have texts supporting that I was at home while my husband was out in the car with one of our children.

The September allegation is harder because I haven't received any evidence relating to it, and the route is one we both regularly travelled with the children. I genuinely can't say who was driving on that particular occasion without seeing the evidence.

I pleaded not guilty to all four charges and explained the above in my letter to the court. My position is that I never received the S172 requests and therefore had no opportunity to respond to them.

The slightly strange part is that my husband had almost exactly the same issue last May. He never received the original request to identify the driver but did receive the SJP paperwork. He pleaded guilty to the speeding offence and not guilty to the S172 offence. A few weeks later, he received a letter saying the whole case had been dismissed. We don't know why, and I appreciate his circumstances and plea weren't necessarily identical to mine, but naturally I'm wondering whether there's any possibility of a similar outcome.

I currently have nine points on my licence, so I'm obviously concerned about the potential consequences of these proceedings. I'm not suggesting that the points are a defence, but they do make the outcome particularly significant for me. We also sold the car at Easter and replaced it with a larger family vehicle, so I no longer have access to the original car.

I'm due at court tomorrow for the initial hearing to set directions, and I'm trying to understand what, if anything, I can realistically do at this stage to avoid the matter progressing to a full trial.

Would it be sensible to ask the prosecutor to review the case in light of the non-receipt of the original notices and what happened with my husband's case? Should I be asking for specific evidence of posting/service and copies of the original notices before anything further happens?

I'm not looking to avoid responsibility for something I've actually done. My concern is that I never received the requests in the first place, and I don't want to plead guilty to offences when I don't believe I can honestly do so.

If anyone has experience of a similar situation, particularly where the original S172 requests weren't received, I'd really appreciate any advice on how best to approach tomorrow's hearing and whether there's any realistic prospect of the prosecution discontinuing the case.

Thanks in advance.

Keep_pedalling

If you posted before on this forum you must have done it on another account. With 9 points on your licence whatever you do you are going to with a totting up ban as at a minimum you are going to get 6 more points unless you can convince the court you never received the NIPs which is going to be very difficult.

The normal advice would be to do a deal in admitting to speeding if they drop the FTN charges, but as you say you were not the driver for one of these offences so that is not an option unless you want to risk a perverting the course of justice charge.

Did you ever post over on the FTLA forum. They are really the experts in criminal motoring offences so if not go there now although at this late stage

https://www.ftla.uk/speeding-and-other-criminal-offences/speeding-and-other-criminal-offencesfail-to-comply-with-lane-closure/

chuffinnora

Whilst I haven't had exactly the same scenario, I did receive 2 summons once for the speeding offence and also failing to notify who was driving (both of us shared driving that day). My solicitor got the FTN dropped quite easily, and I ended up with 3 points and £90 fine (plus £600 solicitor fee!).

The police actually had very clear video of me driving, so depending on how they allegedly caught you, hopefully that is available to prove the cases. Mine was Cambridgeshire police and they were quite happy for us to view the video footage some time before the court date. Did you request that?…..I still remember the smirking officer as he sat me down to view the footage.

TooManyPoints

Far too late to provide any meaningful advice. So a summary:

You cannot adopt the usually strategy (to offer to plead guilty to speeding on the condition the FtP charge is dropped). You were not driving on the first occasion and cannot be sure about the second.

The speeding charges are therefore dead ducks as the police have no evidence that you were driving.

Your only option therefore is to defend he FtP charges. The police have only to satisfy the court that the notices were properly addressed and posted to your last known address. You should have been provided with their evidence along with the SJPN. If not, it will be provided a court.

You will have to convince the court the notices were not received. Courts are naturally sceptical when considering that, especially when the defendant has nine points. You only have your own testimony to convince them.

You say this is a “preliminary” hearing. However, you may find that the prosecution is ready to go ahead. The issue in both cases is clear and it is unlikely that any witnesses will be necessary (unless you disagree with any of the statements you have (or will be given) and you want the statement maker(s) to attend). There is nothing for the prosecutor to review.

If you are convicted of one or both of the offences, you will face a six month ban under the “totting up” legislation. You can only avoid that by convincing the court that you or others will suffer “exceptional hardship”.

It’s not a criticism, but you really should have prepared for this a little sooner. Have you given an exceptional hardship argument any thought?

If your cases are adjourned for a trial at a later date come back and we can discuss how you might best defend he FtP charges (though it will not be easy). Otherwise, do let us know how it goes.

MattMattMattUK

Whatever you do, don't drive to court, you will almost certainly receive a ban and not be able to drive home. If the insurance policy is in your name your husband will need to insure the vehicle separately as most policies become invalid when the main driver looses their license, they will not even cover the car being parked or drive by a named driver.

matriarchrising

Thank you everyone. Today was just a pre-trial hearing… I just presented the truth and my evidence to the police checker, who didn't have identifiable pictures/videos of who was driving (gatso rear pic cameras only) so I asked to stick to my not guilty pleas and that with them having no other evidence and me never receiving the initial NIP etc would it not just be dismissed. They agreed that already having 9 points it would have been in my interest to respond promptly and confirm my husband was driving for one. And i've never not responded to anything before etc. Waited around for a couple of hours and then got called in, prosecution withdrew all charges and dismissed immediately. This is what I was asking and hoping for of course.

matriarchrising

I did also point out that I live down a farm track, off the main road, in a small hamlet of 5 farms/houses all with several outbuildings, none of which are marked/numbered etc and 3 start with the same name… so said whilst currently getting post ok, we have occasionally had issues when we've had new/temp postman, neighbours receiving each others mail as well as delivery drivers often struggling. So think this maybe helped with them understanding I definitely didn't receive them.

Herzlos

Sounds like a good time to mark/number the houses.

It also sounds like you got very lucky.

TooManyPoints

Thanks for letting us know.

I am very pleased for you and even more surprised. You would normally be required to give evidence under oath and convince the court of your defence.

There are a couple of things you should realise (especially whilst carrying none points):

As far as a Section 172 charge goes, the police do not have to possess any evidence to show who was driving. That is the very question they are asking because they don’t know the answer. The offence is “failing to provide driver’s details”. That is a duty that (initially) the Registered Keeper is bound by.

As well as that, they do not have to have any evidence that the request was not received. All they have to do is to provide evidence that it entered the postal system, correctly stamped and addressed to the RK’s last known address. It is then deemed “served” two working days later and the burden shifts to the addressee to prove that it was not received. Proving that something did not happen is notoriously difficult.

The apparent vague nature of your address is something I would recommend you get sorted. It is incumbent on you to have an address at which you can be reliably contacted. It is unlikely to provide much in the way of a defence to a future s172 charge, especially as you are already aware of it.

Keep_pedalling

Thanks for the feed back, quite surprised by the result having seen others in similar situations not be so lucky.

You and your husband now need to drive like nuns until some of those points drop off your licence and it might be worth double checking your V5C for any misprints.

Car_54

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82170869#Comment_82170869

Does the OP's husband have points? I don't think we've been told.