I was caught speeding in a 30mph and pulled over for checks, when the officer checked my insurance he said it was coming up as only my partners name on the insurance. To cut a long story short, the insurance company had made a mistake on the policy, I have never driven without insurance in all my years of holding my licence. I was sent a plea form through which I filled out online including mitigating circumstances. My fine came through the post a week or so later with 8 points and a £1000 fine (without the speeding included) is this common for a first offence with mitigating circumstances? I have since contacted the magistrates who claim they hadn't received my plea.Can I appeal the fine and points?

I was caught speeding in a 30mph and pulled over for checks, when the officer checked my insurance he said it was coming up as only my partners name on the insurance. To cut a long story short, the insurance company had made a mistake on the policy, I have never driven without insurance in all my years of holding my licence. I was sent a plea form through which I filled out online including mitigating circumstances. My fine came through the post a week or so later with 8 points and a £1000 fine (without the speeding included) is this common for a first offence with mitigating circumstances? I have since contacted the magistrates who claim they hadn't received my plea.Can I appeal the fine and points?

Tell us more about the not having insurance / " I have never driven without insurance in all my years of holding my licence".

Did you or did you not hold insurance (even if it was "I didn't hold insurance, but that was due to the insurance company's error")?

If you didn't hold insurance, but only due to the insurance company's error, what was their error, and have they accepted it was their mistake (where they should then provide proof of cover... and thus no offence was committed, allowing an appeal or request for the magistrates to re-open the case)

Since your plea was guilty, then you can't appeal the conviction, only the sentence (and the starting point for a lower culpability, lower harm offence would be 6-8 points and a Band C fine ......).

Of course, if you got the magistrates to re-examine the case and were found not guilty, then no fine or points would then follow........

 

Since your plea was guilty, then you can't appeal the conviction, only the sentence (and the starting point for a lower culpability, lower harm offence would be 6-8 points and a Band C fine ......).

Of course, if you got the magistrates to re-examine the case and were found not guilty, then no fine or points would then follow........

Did they enter your plea as guilty or not guilty?.

If they entered your plea as guilty, then you can't appeal, only ask the Magistrates to re-open the case ... but you say

I have since contacted the magistrates who claim they hadn't received my plea.Can I appeal the fine and points?

If they entered your plea as not guilty, then you can appeal to the Crown Court, and if your insurers now provide you with proof of cover for the time / date of the alleged offence, you should have an absolute defence.

The advantage of the latter is that a request to the magistrates to re-open the case is discretionary only ; a Crown Court appeal is a more certain way forward IF it is available to you.

Your partner needs to find out from Insurers why your name is not included on Insurance. If a mistake has been made, then the Insurers can provide evidence that you were Insured to drive at the time and you can approach the court.

I presume they entered my plea as guilty as they state they never received my online form. I thought this was quite a high fine and amount of points considering the circumstances. I was under the impression that I was insured, and so was he, my partner is the main policy holder and I am insured along side him, we only changed the insurance company 20 days before I was pulled over. We were given a quote online through the comparison website that we always use and were unable to complete the payment online so my partner called Halifax with the reference number and payment details, all the lady asked is was everything to stay the same as the form. They claim that they did not receive my details from the comparison website. he is insured though. I have had to contact the ombudsman as they won't provide a letter of indemnity, the ombudsman say they have mis-sold the insurance, I still think but my partner still should have checked the policy though.

I presume they entered my plea as guilty as they state they never received my online form.

No. If they never received anything then they would have assumed a not guilty plea, but found you guilty in your absence.

I thought this was quite a high fine and amount of points considering the circumstances. I was under the impression that I was insured, and so was he, my partner is the main policy holder and I am insured along side him, we only changed the insurance company 20 days before I was pulled over. We were given a quote online through the comparison website that we always use and were unable to complete the payment online so my partner called Halifax with the reference number and payment details, all the lady asked is was everything to stay the same as the form. They claim that they did not receive my details from the comparison website. he is insured though. I have had to contact the ombudsman as they won't provide a letter of indemnity, the ombudsman say they have mis-sold the insurance, I still think but my partner still should have checked the policy though.

Did they provide an email confirmation / cover note / policy documents?. If so, you should have asked to see the email / policy / cover documents to confirm.You should ahve had something 20 days after taking out the policy ....

A finding that they mis-sold the insurance won't guarantee that they'll backdate cover (although they may....), and without backdated cover I don't see that that you'd be able to get the conviction reversed, only a lesser penalty.

Since you appear to accept your guilt but were sentenced following being found guilty in your absence (because your plea was not received) you should apply to the court to re-open your case and re-hear the matter, taking account of your guilty plea. Section 142 of the Magistrates’ Court Act, 1980, allows this:

142 Power of magistrates’ court to re-open cases to rectify mistakes etc.

A magistrates’ court may vary or rescind a sentence or other order imposed or made by it when dealing with an offender if it appears to the court to be in the interests of justice to do so and it is hereby declared that this power extends to replacing a sentence or order which for any reason appears to be invalid by another which the court has power to impose or make.

You should then be sentenced in accordance with the guidelines. This will be a fine of a week’s net income (reduced from one and a half weeks for your guilty plea), £85 costs, a surcharge of 10% of the fine and six penalty points. (I don’t know why you got eight as there seem to be no aggravating circumstances).