He hasn’t been dual charged, only charged with one offence of failing to provide information. 3rd February: caught on speeding camera going 36 in a 30mph Roughly week later: sent letter asking for information of driver End of February: letter returned with my boyfriends information 3rd August: received letter dated 31st July of charges filed on 1st June of failing to provide information 5th August: filed not guilty plea online Heard nothing so called on 23rd August to see what was happening, told plea would be reviewed in administrative court on 31st August. 15th September: receives letter dated 12th september of Summons on Referral to Court. That’s a summary of everything to do with this particular charge, been dragged over nearly 8 months at this point, so extremely keen to get this over and done with.

Right okay, unaware of that as didn’t have to go through this process for the first offence. Would you suggest a solicitor for this? As if he gets found guilty could lead to 6 points and another large fine I assume as in the case of the original charge. Also would he still be able to be charged with the initial speeding offence even thought it is past the 6 months limit under special circumstances. Very aware that if that is the case, if the points are totted up with his existing 3 points it could lead to him losing his license.

Hello all, Following on from the previous offence, the second offence my boyfriend was charged with 1 day later (the exact same thing, failing to provide information) has now gone to court. To me this all seems a bit fishy if I’m honest, both responses were sent to the initial identification letter, he heard nothing back and was then charged for 2 offences with both charges being filed within a day of each other for speeding offences that took place nearly a month apart? Very bizarre. However as you can see the outcome of the first charge was seemingly quite positive for the situation. The second charge I think is going to be a lot more tricky. The difference being with the first one he didn’t hear anything about it until he was charged in his absence and received a letter detailing a fine and points. The second charge however was sent to him before it went to court therefore he entered a not guilty plea, with relevant information as to why. This was then heard in an administrative court that we were told we were unable to attend. Last week he received a letter titles ‘Summons on Referral to Court’. The letter says a magistrate has decided this case should be referred to a full court hearing. On the reverse of the document it says ‘ your case was considered under the single justice procedure, however owing to the reasons given your case has now been referred to a full magistrates court hearing.’ It then says under the heading For Trial that the magistrates will receive either written or spoken evidence and witnesses must be brought who can be called to give evidence. Now to me this doesn’t seem great and seems a lot more serious. Should we be considering getting legal representation? I was able to handle the last issue with the helpful advice given on this forum but I don’t know how confident I will be doing this in a full magistrates court.

Hi all, Just thought I’d let you know what happened. When we got to the magistrates the legal advisor offered my boyfriend the deal upfront when he heard what had happened with the case and that he’d done a stat dec. The LA then asked what letters he’d received etc, when my boyfriend told them all he’d got was the orgiginal letter to his mum and then the letter with the charge and points, the LA told the magistrates that this sounded like the case they’d heard prior as well as other cases they’d heard that morning, he then suggested it be taken back to a fixed penalty because of no totting up and the speed he was going. He ended up being issued with £40 fixed penalty, £30 court costs and £30 victim surcharge and given 3 points. Seems like best case scenario, now alls he’s got to do is deal with the other fine and everything’s seemingly sorted. Thanks for all the advice.

I am just wondering the likelihood of this deal being offered. Also if they don’t offer the deal, won’t the fact that one court has accepted he never received the letters because of the statutory declaration be enough proof or does it not work like that? Also, I feel I should mention. In the time since we began proceedings for this case, my boyfriend has since received another charge for failing to provide information. Seemingly the exact same thing that they received the initial nomination and nothing else. Once again we never received any further letters. At this point, we are at a complete loss. He has pleaded not guilty on very basic advice from a lawyer friend as he can’t plead guilty to something he wasn’t aware of. However even he see’s now proving this is completely impossible. I assume no court will accept that someone just isn’t receiving their mail as he does receive other things. All we can think is his mum usually gets to the post before him, we know she’s had a habit of ignoring what looks like her bills and there is sometimes letters that keeps with her things left unopened/thrown away but she assures us that’s only her post. Other than this, I cannot see how post is just not making its way to the house. I have called the magistrates court as he never heard anything back after his not guilty plea and was told that this is being heard in court on Friday but we cannot attend? They will simply make a judgment and then we can expect a letter with a court date following this, the man on the phone also said we can call after 3rd September to find out the date in order to avoid anymore issues with not receiving mail. Please advise on any possible course of action we can take. My boyfriend relies on his car to get to work as he works across the city doing shift work that can see him starting/ finishing at 6am based on that weeks pattern. He has been driving for 8 years and has a clear record up to now, should we be thinking of bringing in a solicitor?

Hi, So to update you all. We have just been to the magistrates. They accepted his statutory declaration at Sefton magistrates and he pleas not guilty to not providing his information however they said as the original charge was issued by Wirral magistrates they have issued him with a date where he will have to go to Wirral magistrates court where he will also have to issue his plea on the 3rd September. Is this usual protocol? As I said neither of us have ever had to do this before and have clean licenses. What will happen at Wirral magistrates?

This is what I don’t understand, when I’ve enquiries for more information they say it refers to a second letter that he did not respond to confirm he was the driver but if he hasn’t have replied to that letter would the issue still not be addressed to his mum? I’ve never had a speeding fine before so don’t know the usual protocol however I have gathered that they get the first letter to the owner of the vehicle, then a letter to the driver as a response from the first letter then either a letter to invite you to submit a guilty plea if they decide to take it to court or an invitation to speed awareness course. Trying to get information on this has been extremely difficult as the issue in question that courts are now concerned with is the charge of not supplying information and not the original driving offence so we don’t even know which offence he is being charged for (first or second speeding violation) I feel they are making it as difficult as possible to make him pay the fine when he will definitely not be paying this penalty for letters that he never received.

Hi This is my first post as I am really at a loss. In February my boyfriend got caught twice within 2 weeks speeding, once 36 in a 30 and then 42 in a 30. He had recently started a new job on the other side of the city so wasn’t great with timings, not an excuse but still. The owner of his car (his mum) received the letters regarding naming the driver which my boyfriend filled in and sent back. This was in March. Then in mid-July he received a letter from the magistrates court saying he had an £846 fine and 6 points (!!!) but he didn’t read the letter correctly and assumed for some reason this was his speeding fine. He organised to pay it with a payment plan but didn’t actually make the first payment as in the mean time I saw the letter and realised it was actually a fine for not providing his information. So I rang the council and after getting passed from pillar to post (3 magistrates court and the police) they finally revealed that the case had been tried in his absence because he’d never replied to a letter sent to him in the mean time. He never received any letter apart from the initial letter where he was named as the driver. I organised for him to do a statutory declaration in the magistrates court so the case and the fine has been put on hold until then however what is the likelihood of this being successful? He has no other points on his licence in case you were wondering. Thanks for any help you can offer.