Driving offences in england need advice please

[mayaknew]

I live in Scotland but have been charged with speeding in england. It wasn't me it was dh but now I've been charged with the speeding and failing to identify the driver. I didn't see a letter asking me to but my mental health has not been great recently so I've been doing a lot of avoiding inc opening letters.

Anyway .. I will plead guilty to failing to provide information however I want to plead not guilty to the speeding dh obviously will take responsibility for this.

My question is .. Will I need to attend court in england? And do I need a lawyer?

I'm guessing you've missed the deadline for informing them. I would try ringing them to say what you've said here. It may be that you'll end up with points for failing to give info and your DH will get points separately for the speeding but that's life and you'll deal with it if so. I doubt you will need to attend court if you both plead guilty.

Yeah that's fine if that is the outcome. As I said mental health not been great so I completely spiraled when I received the letter and had myself going to jail and losing my job and my professional registeation. Dh keeps telling me its no big deal but I am obsessing over it. I've contacted a local lawyer for a free consultation but with in being BH won't hear from them until Friday at earliest.

Will a Scottish lawyer be able to help me or will I need an English lawyer?

And where will the court be? Will it be the court in the area the offence was committed ?

You really won't need a lawyer.
Just call them up, apologise, say you missed the letter and they'll sort it out for you

Even though I've already been charged and asked to enter pleas ?

The OP may need to be prepared to have a chat with some nice policemen. Bear in mind from the outside this looks like a case of perverting (or attempting to pervert) the course of justice (known as "doing a Huhne" in the trade )

How would I speak to policemen? Would they come to my house?

Why would they not do that before the charges are brought ?

And how does the scots English law and policing differences work here?

Soon as lawyers back open tomorrow I will phone them

How would I speak to policemen? Would they come to my house?

If there was a real suspicion that you and DH were trying to swap points, it's possible. As I said, to an outsider, the circumstances you have described are pretty much SOP when people suddenly realise what taking the points mean and "remember" someone else was driving.

At the very least they will be reviewing any photographic evidence.

Your problem is that you have already failed to comply with the law so need to be mindful of how it looks to others.

Will the police come to my house though ? Would it be a local police officer ? Or one from the area the offence was committed? Seems a long trip for doing 7mph over the limit 🙈

Will the police come to my house though ? Would it be a local police officer ? Or one from the area the offence was committed?

Generally it would be a local officer taking a statement under caution ...

Seems a long trip for doing 7mph over the limit

It would be the suspicion of perverting justice - which is a very serious offence.

Have you rung them yet op? Pick up the phone and tell them what you've said here - at least you might get some answers which is always better than fear of the unknown

No I'm too scared to phone them. My anxiety it through the roof. To be fair I did forget its only a bank holiday here and that I could phone them. I cant I need to psych myself up to do it.

Try to ring as soon as possible - you're catastrophising which will really affect your anxiety levels. You don't know what will happen for sure unless you ring them or get a lawyer to support you if you can afford it.

You just need to call them then you can stop catastrophising. I know it's hard, I've been there. But you WILL feel better once you've done it.

I've just checked the letter and theres actually no phone number on it. Who would I call?

I'm in Lancashire and the letter includes a number for the central processing unit. Try looking online, maybe search the name of the county it happened in and speeding offence?

It happened in Cumbria. I cant even remember driving through roadworks at Cumbria. I barely know anything about the Scottish legal system let alone English.

Too late for today but make this a priority tomorrow and commit to getting On the phone first thing - scary yes but definitely easier than this state you're getting
Yourself in about what might happen .

Thinking practically about what to do, Who is the letter from? Court or DVLA? Have you got a copy of the original Notice of Intended Prosecution - that should have a number you could start with them.

It was from the court.

I will contact lawyer tomorrow when they are open anyway and see what they say. Hopefully I will be entitled to legal aid.

OP, before calling a lawyer, try calling the office that initially issued the "notice of intended prosecution" - that was the letter saying we caught your car speeding, tell us about the person who was driving.

Call them, explain you suffer with anxiety and didn't manage to open and return the letter in time. Your OH was driving, could you provide his details now? You will need his driving licence number.

I found the details below online ...

Notice Of Intended Prosecution (NIP) Advice: If you have lost the notice you were sent by post, returned it but not heard anything back or have any other queries relating to the NIP you should contact the Central Ticket Office (CTO) by email at [email protected] or by phone 01768217521 (11am - 4pm)

Phoned the court they said there's nothing they can do I need to enter a plea and if I plead not guilty I'll need to go to trial.

So much advice on here that's well meant but not right...

Take a look at the Pepipoo forum. This happens every day and the courts are very used to it. Unfortunately for you it wasn't you driving as that makes it all simpler.

They see this all day every day in court so while it's a big thing to you it's not a big deal to the magistrates. Get yourself on Pepipoo and get some better advice on how to play it to Minish the situation.

Don’t panic! You are admitting the more serious offence which is failing to notify the police who was driving. Send a guilty plea by post (or you may be able to do this online) to the court, explaining how this happened. The speeding charge will be dropped as the Prosecution will not be able to prove who the driver was, and it will almost certainly be too late to lay a charge against your husband (more than 6 months since the offence). Don’t forget to include your statement of means so that the fine can be fixed taking your income into account.
You will get 6 penalty points on your licence. As long as you don’t have 6 or more points already, you won’t need to go to court and you will be told the outcome by post

I was going to plead not guilt to the failure to declare driver 🙈 that's what the girl on the phone at the court told me to do.

Should I not? I know I did it but I didnt do it deliberately I thought I may have mitigating circumstances. Plus even if I am found guilty the points dont go up only the fine. It's more the points I'm worried about than the fine.

Actually even more than that I worry about having to physically go to court