Advice Please On A Speeding Conviction

[andyparry]

Back on the 1st March, I got caught speeding by a parked up mobile van, doing 66mph in a 40mph limit. The Van was parked up in a bus layby on double yellow lines (the red dot) and was basically catching people as they came over the brow of a hill on a flyover (the yellow dot). The van was not on or over the road where the offence took place, but on a slip road that does not have direct access to the road I was on. The part of the road where I was caught also has no pedestrian access. As I was driving a work pool car, it took a couple of weeks for the paperwork to get through to me, but when it did turn up, I promptly filled out my details and sent it back (20th March ish). I then heard nothing for four months. When I did hear from the court about it, I promptly admitted to the offence, filled out all the necessary paperwork including financial statement and sent of my licence. I ticked the box admitting the offence and indicated that I did not want to go to court and sent the paperwork straight back with days. I have just received the judgement through and from having a perfectly clean licence all my life, they have slapped me with 6 points and a £235 fine!!! This to me seems massively excessive. I did not at any point have the option to pay a fine quickly and reduce the payment as many of my friends have had.

I phoned the court earlier to try and find out a reason for this massive penalty and drew a blank. The option they have given me is to appeal with 21 days of the conviction, of which 9 have been used before I received the paperwork. The whole thing from offence to conviction has taken 5 months 5 days. At no point have I delayed paperwork.

 

Is this a realistic penalty or has something gone wrong in the process somewhere? When my mum recently got done for speeding, she got a £60 fine and 3 points. That I could cope with but 6 points is going to screw up the kit insurance and my main car insurance.

 

Help.....!!!!

 

Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

 

Andy

 

Edited August 15, 2007 by andyparry

[enforcer]

Andy

 

Sorry to hear about this but there isn't a great deal you can do now.

 

It sounds like you were sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) rather than a 'Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty'. Because the recorded speed is excessive you may have exceeded the acceptable limits for the offence to be dealt with by the fixed penalty (ie £60 and 3 points). At a certain threshold it is deemed inappropriate to deal with highter speeds by way of the fixed penalty. (Someone doing 66mph should perhaps receive more of a penalty than someone doing 46mph?).

 

Having completed the NIP (which must be served on the registered keeper within 14 days) the papers have resulted in a summons to court. You had indicated that you did not wish to contest the offence or go to court, so it was dealt with by the relevant court in your absence.

 

You may be able to appeal the sentence imposed depending on the date of the conviction. However you cannot appeal the conviction itself unless you could successfully argue that there was some form of process abuse (such as the position/location of the safety camera van was not appropriate to the carriageway on which you were alleged to have committed the offence, or the fact that it was illegally parked in the first place). It does seem a little harsh, although I am sure that the speed at which you were recorded was above the threshold for a fixed penalty notice in that area. Finally a word of caution regarding appealing the sentence - if your appeal is not upheld the court might even increase the sentence (unlikely).

 

It might be worth appealing on the grounds of the harshness of the sentence, a previous good driving history, the financial impact of the endorsement on your insurance etc, but I would take legal advice (CAB perhaps), and I would also be very wary of throwing good money at a solicitor who would have to be damn good to be of any help.

 

Sorry to say old chum that I suspect you are just going to have to put this one down to experience. Talk to your insurance company - they may not load up your premium on the grounds that this was a single offence resulting in 6 points, rather than 2 offences totting up the same. (You have to inform them by law anyway)

 

Chin up

 

Rich

[Guest robinj66]

Sorry Andy but I think Enforcer has said it all. If you were to Appeal against the sentence I would limit it to the penalty points. However I wouldn't give you good odds on succeeding and even if you did, you would still get hit for the costs of the Appeal (which would be in a Crown Court).

 

I can confirm that 6 points is within the Magistrates' sentencing guidelines as you were between 20 -30 mph over the limit.

 

For what its worth, I would recommend anyone with a summons for a motoring offence to attend court in person - it always makes a better impression on the Magistrates and makes your case stand out from the hundreds of others they deal with in the same session. It also gives you the opportunity to apologise and explain your circumstances, including why more penalty points would not be appropriate.

[Guest little fella]

Agree with the above. sorry

[Guest salty_monk]

Move out of the country for a few years... that helps to clear your licence up pretty quick

 

Bad luck mate, hindsight is a wonderful thing. I don't think an appeal would be successful