Statutory declaration

[BusyLilacShaker]

Need some advice...
I moved house last year and due to major life events I forgot to update dvla of change of address, received a fine so chased it back to speeding ticket and failure to identify, I am about to do statutory declaration and an option to do it on video call has been sent out, is this a good idea or is it best to go to court.

You may want to take advice on whether doing a statutory declaration will be in your interests. Even if the stat dec is accepted you are still going to be charged with an offence. If the speeding offence was more than 6 months ago then you cannot be charged with speeding and you will be charged with failing to identify driver (the offence you have been convicted of). Unfortunately not getting the NIP letter and reminder because you did not let the DVLA know your address is not a defence, so you may still be found guilty of failing to identify driver. As things stand, in your absence the fine will have been based on a weekly take home income of £440. If your income is lower than this you can ask for the fine to be reviewed to reflect your actual income, rather than going through the stat dec process. If you decide to do the stat dec and then plead guilty to the offence you will be fined based on your income, but get a 1/3 reduction in the fine for pleading guilty. A surcharge of 40% of any fine is added, and also prosecution costs (which are much higher if you plead not guilty but are found guilty). The offence of failing to identify the driver also carries 6 penalty points.
I hope I have explained this clearly. A lot of people get caught out in a similar way, and it is sad to see people who are generally law abiding, and would have paid the speeding fine if they had known about it, suffer quite severe penalties for 'life admin' oversights.