Court Action on Speeding Offence

[blueotter]

Thought i'd try and post for some advice here so to cut a long story short.

 

My girlfriend committed a speeding offence in November (sp30) but didn't know anything about it until she received a court order instructing her to pay a £500 fine.

The upshot is that the address of her licence and car was still registered at her ex partners home and he's presumably been throwing away her mail until he came across this one that he decided to give to her.

 

Consequently she was completely unaware that the offence had taken place,didn't receive any follow up letters and wasn't aware of a letter telling her court action was being considered.Now has a £500 fine to deal with and possible warrant for her arrest.Ha sspoken to the issuing authority who said its a matter for the courts .

 

Does she have any grounds here and what should she do about it,we realise that the addresses should have been changed but she'd just been living with friends until moving into my house and forgot about it.

 

any advice is welcome please.

[Mossycat]

It is an offence not to notify the DVLA of any change of address, so she doesn't really have a defence to use for not receiving notification.

 

Mossy

[lamma]

as long as the address used on your DVLA registration makes you contactable you should be okay on that regard - arguable though as as ex partner has held on to at least some of the mail. Did he hang onto all mail or just the stuff that gets g/f into trouble ? V5 address does not have to be your home address I believe.

[gwc1000]

Was this fine issued at your local Magistrates Court?

[patdavies]

If all post went missing/was ignored, it won't be for speeding - it will be failure to disclose.

 

You g/f needs to check with the Court concerned and get the judgement set-aside on the grounds that she did not receive a summons.

 

Also be aware that her licence may have been revoked for non-surrender for penalty points.

[blueotter]

Hi,

I think he's just been throwing the mail in the bin either that or opening it and binning it however he did pass on the court fine and collection order to her.

It was issued by the local magistrates court with an order to pay by 17th July 09.

[jkdd77]

I agree with patdavies-

 

Your girlfriend needs to make a statutory declaration that she never received the forms or court summons, in order to get the judgment 'set-aside'.

 

If she knows she was driving, she also needs to let the police know as soon as possible, so that she can rely on the defence that she gave information as to drivers details as soon as was practical.

 

This will get the court process 'reset', and she can't now be convicted for speeding as too much time has passed, but she may face additional charges of 'failure to notify DVLA of change of address'.

[blueotter]

Hi,

Thank you for the advice,time is against us so do you know if there's a template or such like to draft a set aside document ? i presume its a document or will the magistrates court have one ?

[lamma]

contact the court. ASAP !

[patdavies]

If she knows she was driving, she also needs to let the police know as soon as possible, so that she can rely on the defence that she gave information as to drivers details as soon as was practical.

 

Good advice. Stops the "failure to disclose" charge in its tracks

 

but she may face additional charges of 'failure to notify DVLA of change of address'.

 

That would be a matter for the DVLA and should easily be defeated. The requirement, as Lamma stated earlier, is only that she be contactable via the address - there is no requirement for actual postal address. As far as she was aware, until all this came to light, she was contactable via her previous address.

[blueotter]

a big thank you for the advice,have an appt with court tomorrow morning to make a statutory declaration that she didn't know anything about this until last week and will go to the police station to sort out the original charge of failure to disclose.will report back and let you know how it goes

[patdavies]

and will go to the police station to sort out the original charge of failure to disclose.

 

 

No point, it long ceased to be a Police matter.

 

All you need to do, once you have the facts of the case (ie the NIP reference number, which will come with the summons) is inform them of who the driver was. It wouldn't hurt to tell the Court also - to demonstrate openness and co-operation.

[blueotter]

Went into make a statutory declaration today and after explaining it to court officials my girlfriends case was heard there and then by the magistrates .They agreed to set aside the original fine and fine her for just the speeding offence with additional costs to the injuries board,total £75 and 3 points.

Many thanks to all who commented,particularly pat davies.

[crem]

Not a bad result under the circumstances.

[lamma]

Good. has the V5 address been changed ?

[blueotter]

not yet but it will be !

[lamma]

do it fast. you don't want to gather another case now it has been shown the current address is not reliable enough for contact to be made. Send it special delivery, make a photocopy and sign it, and keep proof of posting. The DVLA messes up the mail all the time. CYA at all times when dealing with them.

[blueotter]

ok,thank you for the advice

[patdavies]

Went into make a statutory declaration today and after explaining it to court officials my girlfriends case was heard there and then by the magistrates .They agreed to set aside the original fine and fine her for just the speeding offence with additional costs to the injuries board,total £75 and 3 points.

Many thanks to all who commented,particularly pat davies.

 

I think that you may have been conned.

 

Unless the original summons was for both speeding and failure to disclose (which is, in itself an abuse of process. Case law: Middleton v Bath Magistrates). Then by the time that they received the details of the driver's identity, the speeding is out of time (6 months from date of alleged offence) for a summons to be issued.

 

If the Bench agreed the set-aside, then the matter should have been set back to the summons stage. They should not have bounced you straight into Court.

[blueotter]

Oh well ! I believe the original summons was just for failure to disclose,it all happened a bit quick,my girlfriend was called into a room expecting to make a declaration which i assume would have involved a fee anyway.

Ten minutes later she pops back out and said they'll hear the case straight away ! We thought we had a result but i guess that's ignorance and naivety for you !!