Speeding ticket not delivered - going to court now

[Kitkat189]

(posted this in another forum and while I got some advice - see second comment - I also basically got told I was an idiot so hoping for more help as desperate )

We have a letter from the court re failure to provide information re speeding but we received the initial speeding fine late. We immediately replied, nominating the driver (me, husband is RK) only to receive a letter from the police saying we were too late and that my husband will have to appear in court now.

Fully prepared to take the consequences of the speeding fine (I realise this is a separate matter to the offence of not answering their letters). What risks are attached to disputing this please? Details (long…) below.

Our address is difficult to find. It is off a main road in a square but the address is the main road despite our house being on a square with a different name. Our address is something like Main Road 10-12, flat 2. But in reality the house is on Square X. To confuse things further, there is a Main Road 10 and also a Main Road 12 which are a bit further down the road. We frequently get the neighbours mail and vice versa. I can prove this to some extent (complaints re non delivery of items & subsequent refunds etc). At the time of the speeding offence there were also works going on at a commercial address in our building, with a separate entrance on the main road. Some of the new businesses deliveries were mistakenly left with us during this time. I don’t know if the reverse also happened as there were only various workmen coming and going at the time, no sign of the business owner.

This happens all the time. I can never order anything online without following up with instructions on how to find us or I never receive anything. Obviously the postman is much more reliable than the couriers but nobody is 100% perfect.

And also that there is some history of mail going missing.

I won’t bore any readers with further details but our neighbours in the other flat in the building moved out around that time, and they sent someone (their cleaner I believe) around to collect their mail. At least once one of our letters seemed to have been opened by mistake as it was sellotaped and also late so I’m guessing maybe they accidentally took it with them. Who knows if the same could have happened with this letter, I can never prove that but it’s one of my theories

advice from the other forum was that pleading guilty and asking the court to consider mitigating factors such as history of mail going missing might be seen as an attempt to
pervert the course of justice.

You get two letters at least. So both went missing?

they’re unlikely to believe this.

It is the truth. It feels very odd to go to court and lie (saying we received the mail but didn’t reply) just because telling the truth might be seen as perverting the course of justice

Once we received the initial letter we returned it immediately. Not attempting to get out of paying the speeding fine

I basically don’t want to anger the court so want to answer correctly. The charge is that we didn’t nominate the driver - it doesn’t say that we failed to do so within a specific timeframe, just that we didn’t. How to plead…

a) we did, but late - so not guilty?
b) we didn’t do so within the timeframe - guilty?

I think usual advice in these cases is to attend court and offer to plead guilty to the speeding offence on the basis that the prosecutor drops the fail to nominate charge.

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/174646/not-received-nip

See post(s) from Middleman who knows his stuff in this area.

thank you!!!

(although husband is only charged with not giving information, they have not charged him with the speeding offence- I assume I will be, as we nominated me as the driver as soon as we had the letter)

Does the photo show it’s you?

You don’t have to attend court unless you want to. These cases are done via paperwork

‘husband is RK’
What does this mean?

It's a little unclear from your wording, but were you the one actually driving at the time?

This is a thing.
We sent one off (with envelope provided) they never got it, we received a last warning on a Wednesday,days late. As a result we had to send details back within 2 days because of the date of the letter & deadline date.

I'm assuming registered keeper

That’s what I wondered because the OP keeps using the phrase “we nominated me” as if there is an element of choice.
Lying about who is driving (if this has happened) is an offence.

In late 2021 I got flashed by the motorway gantry. I was a bit pissed off at the time as there was a lot of things happening (lanes closing, cones appearing, roadworks, street lights off, generator lights on and bright, already down to 60) and failed to notice the gantry had dropped to a 40. I duly expected to get a ticket but, the following 28 days passed without receiving it.

40 days later, the letter duly arrived, and the postman flashed it nicely in front of my ring doorbell and my internal camera then caught me opening the same. I disputed it with Herts police who were useless, didn’t wish to view the explicit evidence, and opted to take it to court.

Before I went in, the police lawyer tried to coerce me into pleading guilty and was very rude/bolshy/arrogant/adamant I was wrong. The actual judge was factual, agreed with all my evidence, queried why the police had refused to view it and taken me to court instead, and dismissed it all.

The two offences (failure to provide and speeding) are both listed initially, but you/he will only be charged with one. So once you’ve provided the info, the failure to provide should be dropped leaving just the speeding. If you go to court you should be able to speak to the prosecutor beforehand (ask the usher - person wearing a black gown - when you arrive). Speeding will then be dealt with as normal, though you may unfortunately end up with higher costs than you would have done - that will be up to the magistrates on the day though. Do explain all the circumstances in full though and bear in mind that if you don’t have a solicitor then the legal advisor has a duty to help you through the process.