Hi all,

I went through a red light at 1.02 seconds and was sent a letter offering a speed awareness course to which I accepted.

Time went by and a week ago I got a letter stating it was going to court months later as they had not received my letter accepting it.

The detail included by the police states I sent the first letter but not the second.

I have since emailed the Traffic Enforcement Unit who have admitted they did get the letter but the payment was declined and they tried to contact me by phone and letter both of which never came.

This is a massive discrepancy as the police said I didn’t send it out right

now I have proof they did receive it which doesn’t reflect what they stated to the court.

Do I have a chance to appeal this?

I’ll openly admit I did the offence and I was wrong

I don’t feel I’m guilty of 3 points and a fine when I sent the letter accepting the course

Any advice would be great.

Thank you

You can appeal it, but youll have to appeal in court and show what happened. Why did the payment get declined. its not up to them to chase you up. They have thousands of NiP's etc to file, so if you dont pay or theres an error on your part, it automatically progresses to the next stage.

For instance, someoen could be offered a course, send a payment, but not have the money, hoping it would go through. There are procedures in place to stop it. its a very serious offence, so they have to go by the book.

I understand that, I had no call or letter about a decline though and know that this wouldn’t be the case. All I’m saying is they flat out attached a letter to the court saying I had only replied to the first letter and not the second which is false information given the court, surely they should have put that it was received and accepted but the payment failed? It’s all very convenient on their behalf that they’ve stated they didn’t receive it but now questioned and told I sent it recorded they’ve admitted they did.

Do you think there’s any point in appealing? All I want is to do the course I was offered as I abided by the timescale and letters.

You can appeal it, but youll have to appeal in court and show what happened. Why did the payment get declined. its not up to them to chase you up. They have thousands of NiP's etc to file, so if you dont pay or theres an error on your part, it automatically progresses to the next stage.

 

For instance, someoen could be offered a course, send a payment, but not have the money, hoping it would go through. There are procedures in place to stop it. its a very serious offence, so they have to go by the book.

If the matter has progressed to court the chance of a course is gone. The court cannot order a course. You are not "appealing" anything (because you have not yet been convicted of anything). All you can do is to attend court, explain the circumstances and ask them to keep their sentence to the minimum. The offence carries a mandatory endorsement and three penalty points. If you are lucky you might persuade the court to sentence you at the Fixed Penalty level (£100 and three points). How long ago was the offence? (This may explain why you have not been offered a fixed penalty).