Did my producer and thought nothing of it, until today, it’s now turned into a court summons
Basically I’m kinda cr@pping myself and not sure what to do?
Do I hold my hands up and say fair cop, guv’?
Do I contest certain aspects of the Officers statement? There were certain events at a set of traffic lights that aren’t described fully, or, as I saw them.
The rap is for speeding and driving without due care and attention, what are my likely punishments?
The Officers statement ends, “the driving standard of Russ fell below the standard expected of a careful and competent motorist.” - could I contest this?
Could I say that actually to move through the traffic in the way that I did without causing any other vehicles to alter their speed or direction was actually very competent and that the only offense is that of excessive speeding?
The missus has already done a bit of research online, I have BMF’s legal line, any good?
Any other advise and support is gratefully received, especially from our off duty members.
if while you’re in court the video evidence is shown, would you think you are guilty or not, if not persue it completely, otherwise fess up, apologize, and be done with, speeding and driving without due care and attention is 7 points at the minimum. 3 for speeding if its sp30 and 4 points for the other.
Sorry to hear this mate, the best bit of advice you can get is to simply get a solicitor … they’ll be able to review exactly what the evidence is against you and what your options are … ie speeding offence who and what measured it, etc etc etc.
I’m sure if you speak to the BMF legal helpline they should give you a good heads up but, the best person would be your own solicitor to go over it all.
You have to weigh up here what the different outcomes might be:
'Fess up, apologise, state you have booked Bikesafe (do that tonight!). Hopefully a minimal fine/points.
Argue over a minor point that doesn’t actually have any bearing on the likely outcome - you’ll get hammered.
If 1. above doesn’t mean a big chance of losing your license, just some hard-earned cash and some points, it’ll be the cheaper option in the not-so-long run. In a few years time you’ll not regret it!
Fess up but just to point out they will only give you points as a total. what i mean is they dont sit there and say well 4 points for speeding and 7 points for that and that would make 11, they just do you for the offence as a whole.
First thing to do is to check the date that the summons was issued, they have to issue it within 6 months of the NIP, according to the original post that was on 1st Aug, so to be legit, the summons has to have been issued (note : this is the date issued by the court, NOT when it was received by you) by 1st Feb, if not then send it back pointing out the fact & tell them where to file it…
If it is legit, then I’d contact a solicitor experienced in dealing with bike cases & get his advice.
As it sounds like the copper in the van was regular plod rather than traffic I’d have thought there may well be grounds for contesting his ability to determine that - “the driving standard of Russ fell below the standard expected of a careful and competent motorist.” particularly as it doesn’t sound (from reading your side of the story) that you were doing anything particularly daft, but that’s just my opiniion, you really do need proper legal advice rather than relying on us barrack room lawyers here.
