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I have received a NIP for speeding over six weeks after the alleged offence and I am not sure who was driving the car. What would you recommend I do?
I have received a Notice of Intended Prosecution stating there is photographic evidence of me using 'excess speed' (40mph in a 30mph zone). I received the NIP over six weeks after the alleged offence and it is proving incredibly difficult to identify the driver at the time of the incident. I had recently purchased the car and numerous friends and family had driven the vehicle (with me inside) as a test drive to gauge their opinions. Further investigation has narrowed the likely drivers down to myself, my friend or my sister. I would like to know what course of action you could recommend I take, as I do not want to send my licence number off and thereby incriminate myself when I may not have been the driver at the time. Should I request to see the photographic evidence, as it may help identify the driver?
You can ask to see the photographic evidence. Sometimes they will show it and sometimes they won't. It's very regional.
If you name anyone else as the potential driver then make sure that they had insurance to drive your car at the time.
You should tell the truth when you respond to a NIP. If you don’t know who was driving then you should say so in your response. Anything else could be viewed as perverting the course of justice, which is serious allegation.
If the police don’t accept this and issue a summons for failing to provide the information then you can defend the allegation by showing the Court that you used all due diligence to find out who was driving. If the Court accept this then you will be found not guilty. If the court doesn’t accept this then you will be convicted and six points will be imposed plus a fine, plus Court costs.
Have you got points on your licence already? If so how many?
Over the last 14 months we have achieved a 100% success rate in defending allegations of failing to provide information as to the identity of the driver. All the clients that we represented on the basis of a fixed fee recovered 100% of their legal expenses back from the Court in the form of a defendant's costs order. This means that our services were effectively for free.
Only one of the cases where we acted went as far as trial and we won that! All the other cases were withdrawn pre-trial by the Crown Prosecution Service who were persuaded by us (on our client's behalf) that they wouldn't win at trial.
To win you need to persuade the Court that you used all due diligence to figure out who was driving and that it was reasonable in your case that you were unable to do so.
These are dangerous allegations in that since the 24 September 2007 the points if convicted were increased from three to six.
Come back to us for a free advice call if you get a Court summons.
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