advice appreciated

Off-topic
1

Hey all,

Just got home & opened up a load of letters & documents from the Met regarding my pending court hearing. Im to appear in court next month for failing to provide driver details for an alleged offence of excess speed on 3 April last year. summons is on the way.

They sent me copies of the the notice of intended prosecution which they apparently sent twice last year but I honestly never received either one.

It could have been an address mixed up as im flat 3, 42 *** St but they put flat 342 ***St.

What should I do now??. I can live with 3 points(ouch) but is there away out. im getting a summons for failing to provide driver details. Something that I never knew I was asked for.

& does anyone know how this works, can I sort this out without going to court & wasting more of our hard earned TAX.

Any advice would be appreciated

A

2

If they have printed the address incorrectly on the NIP then you may have a defence. You’re best off speaking to a solicitor, this is a technicality. Is the address on your V5 reg. doc fully correct?

3

http://www.pepipoo.com/, try this website. They have a forum as well, they were very helpful when I got my speeding fine and have loads of experience.

4

If they had your address down incorrectly , how come you got this latest correspondence?

if they sent this one through the post i would imagine the previous two were sent to the same place as well…

5

6

Speak to a Solicitor. That would be your best bet.

Good luck.

7

The letters couldnthave been sent recorded delivery as I didn’t sign for anything. This latest correspondence wasn’t posted through my letter box but put through the shared one downstairs. (4 flats & some time the door is left open).

As for the addresses, Yep! They are all the same, that’s why I was shocked to find this letter. The address on my V5 is different. flat c 42 opposed to flat 342

They have the reg through technical & photographic evidence. I don’t remember ever going up that part but we are talking nearly a year ago so im not too sure.

It was a rental bike & my first week on the rd so I don’t think I would have been speeding. But hey, I honestly don’t remember.

Anyway thanks for the advice guys.

8

I’d write to the CPS pointing out the address problem and pointing out that since they sent the S.172 request to the wrong address you can’t have failed to fill it in as it was never served.

A NIP or S.172 request CAN NOT be deemed served if sent to the wrong address

9

I’m with Trojan, get a solicitor would be first base and see if you’ve got a case so you can wriggle out of it. If you do have to go to court I’d be almost 100% certain if you wanted to plead to the speeding they’d drop the failure to supply details, so don’t worry about it too much… magistrates courts aren’t allowed to punish people anymore guilty or innocent!

10

Didn’t Tiff Needel have a similar problem recently when he claimed that the NIP’s never arrived (not talking about his takeaway here), and as he was deemed ‘responsible and honest’ this was accepted. If you haven’t got any form or anything and can get a recommendation letter from an authoritive figure, this will probably help…

11

Thought I’d signed onto the wrong forum for a sec - pepipoo is definitely the place for you, and they may well be able to recommend a good solicitor.

Disagree with whoever said you could take one hit to lose the other. If the NIP was not served within 14 days of the alleged offence, then there is no case to answer. Your difficulty might be to prove that it wasn’t received, and there’s where the problem might come. Good luck.

12

“Was the letters recorded or special delivery … if not there is no prove they did post them or that they did get to you. By all you know is that they lost the papers before they put it inside the envelope”

Wrong.

Proof from the station they were sent via First Class post is proof enough, People in the past have attempted to challenge this but failed.

“Was that you in the photos… any description of vehicle or driver/rider that match you?”

Correct.

the original service and paperwork would have informed you that this evidence was available to you for corroboration.

“Maybe it was someone else using your REG. Do you remember if you were there and if you did speed??”

Correct.

Vehicles do get cloned , but the photographic evidence should clear that up.

“What camera or speeding device was it used?? If it was a police vehicle why didn’t they come after you??”

Myth.

police can target you with a laser, then note the plate,rough description of you, then go through the usual procedure, this is usual when dealing with one motorist on the roadside and hear a second vehicle coming at speed, or on top of a Motorway bridge…either way they are not in a position to stop you, and either way just because they can’t stop you doesn’t mean you won’t get a NIP.

“If it was a fixed camera then…why didn’t you get the letters?”

Unknown.

The courts will ask why he could respond to this correspondence and not the earlier ones.

I would get a solicitor, as already mentioned, then you can explain everything you have to date, in your own time, and a solicitor will know what questions to ask you and what answers he needs from you to prepare a defence.

either way,

Good Luck!

13

Re proof of posting, Porky’s right, proof of posting is accepted in court, BUT it’s rebuttable, i.e. if you can show that you DIDN’T receive it, then the court may accept that the NIP wasn’t served within the required time and therefore there is no case to answer.

Don’t know why the safety camera partnerships don’t negotiate a bulk rate with the Royal Mail so that items have to be signed for. It costs a bit more but then at least they’d have irrebuttable proof.

14

If there is proof of posting, it will be proof of posting to an incorrect address so I can’t see that helping the Police much. Proof of posting creates a presumption that the item was served at the address it was posted to not the address the Police would have liked it to go to.

15

they already sent a nip to the rental firm & they nominated me as the driver at the time. They also sent me the VQ5 for the bike at the time (rental firm) & a witness statement from the police staff who checked the records & found I never answered the Nips.

they have no proof they sent the nips recorded or special delivery…coz I believe they didn’t .

ive wrote on the pepipoo forum & im still waiting for replies. if anyone knows of a good solicitor in the London area that would be great.

I dont mind the 3 points if it was me speeding but if I get another 3 points for failing to provide driver details that me baned. ive only been on the rd about a year.

as for the 14 day response.

There is a “slip rule” that allows the court to modify small errors (such as name/address of the keeper) due to typographical mistakes. Serious errors cannot be modified, and will invalidate the NIP.

16

Crikey sounds like a solicitor is the best bet, and a smart new suit…

17

I realise that a slip of the pen won’t invalidate the notice, but they need to prove the notice was served. If they sent it to an incorrect address proof of posting won’t help them do that. The legal presumption is that it goes where it is addressed, if the address does not exist you have a chance of refuting the assumption.