Advice on what to do if you have a court summons for a driving offence

[lottieandmia]

My friend is stressing about this and he wants me to find out what he should do. I assume he really ought to go to the citizens advice bureau but I said I would try to find out for him.

He apparently has the maximum amount of points on his license due to speeding and a subsequent ban and fine. He says he had a court summons 4 months ago and he didn't attend (goodness knows why). He is now panicking about what to do.

Does anyone know please?

According to the link I posted earlier, it's the court nearest the site of the offence.

Camel I am pretty sure he can be disqualified in his absence

Why are you dealing with it while he should? He has to attend and be honest. That's it. There is no wriggling out of this.

fruitbats he can't be disqualified in his absence but can be compelled to attend at another date if they want to disqualify him

When considering disqualification in absence the starting point should be that disqualification in absence should be imposed if there is no reason to believe the defendant is not aware of the proceedings, and after the statutory notice has been served pursuant to section 11(4) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 where appropriate. Disqualification should not be imposed in absence where there is evidence that the defendant has an acceptable reason for not attending or where there are reasons to believe it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so.

This is from the sentencing council

Our mags used to disqualify in absence. OP he should ring his local police station, they will be able to check any convictions or warrants issued 'that he has no knowledge of' () and from which court they were issued. You are obviously a good friend but that guy really needs to take it from here and get his shit together

If he really wanted to sort it out he could just turn up at the nearest police station and ask for advice.

If he does decide to rock up at his local police station please tell him to do it in the morning. If he ends up being locked up over night it will be unpleasant for him plus a waste of cell space.

He most certainly could have been disqualified without attending court. The current guideline, as reproduced slightly up the thread, is that non-attenders should be disqualified in their absence if the defendant ought to have known about the hearing and the chance of it resulting in a ban.

As others have said, he needs to address this before he is taken into the court in handcuffs. Even if there's no further action required on the offences themselves, there will almost certainly be fines and costs outstanding. Courts take an extremely dim view of people who don't pay their dues and he could ultimately find himself facing custody for an unpaid fine.

On a final point, if he has genuinely only just found out about the charges, he could make a Statutory Declaration. This needs to be done within twenty-one days of first knowledge and would set aside the existing conviction. The charges would immediately be put again, but this time in his presence and, if he's got any nous, with proper representation.

Source: Magistrate

I don't think he wants to face up to it so he's eventually going to get arrested. I asked him yesterday if he called for advice and he said he'd been too busy.

I think he must have known about it because how else would he know that the court hearing was 4 months ago. Thinking about it now, he is quite jumpy about leaving the house. I suppose this is why!