KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
In this month’s edition we feature more road traffic issues relevant to the trade supplied by Patterson Law. If you need any advice on motoring matters, please email
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Q
I’m due in court for speeding and failing to pro- vide driver information. I didn’t hear about this until I got a call from the court saying they had sent me a summons but it was returned to them
as undeliverable and then they tracked me down to my new address. I thought it was a scam until I got the let- ters this morning. It turns out that about six months back I was speeding and they sent the ticket to my old address. Obviously I never got that and now they are saying I didn’t respond telling them who was driving. I don’t know why they sent it to my old address because I updated my driving licence when I moved. Is there any- thing I can do about this and is it too late for me to tell them I was driving now to court?
A
When a traffic offence is committed where it is not known who was driving (for example a speed camera offence or a hit and run) the police will write to the registered keeper of the vehicle and
ask them to nominate the driver. This is a formal request under section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and it is an offence not to respond.
It can be a defence to failing to give information if you can show that the request was not served on you or alternatively that it was “not practicable” for you to give the information – in this case that would be that you did not receive it.
BUT – when a request for information is sent, the police take the address from the V5, not your licence. You men- tion that you updated your licence but you don’tmention anything about the V5 – they are very different docu- ments. And if the reason you did not receive it is because it was sent to an old address simply because you failed/forgot to update your V5 then it is not a defence and you may be guilty. Unfortunately this is an offence that carries six points and up to a £1,000 fine, a lot more than the standard three points/£100 fine you may have received for speeding.
But, there are ways around it.
Firstly I would like to examine whether this was actually your fault. If we can show that the failure was not yours, 74
i.e. you did update the V5 as well as your licence but the DVLA failed to update their systems, then we can put the blame on them.
Alternatively I would like to know if you were actually still visiting your old property. It doesn’t matter if it was sent there if you had a postal redirection in place or you were visiting regularly to collect post, as that is as good as it being sent to you, and if you still didn’t receive it then we can argue that it was not “served” on you.
Either of those could be a defence, but these are issues that we will need to examine in more detail. If you do have a defence then I would like the opportunity tomake representations to the Crown Prosecution Service dis- creetly behind the scenes to see if we can get both charges dropped – failing to give information on one of the bases above and speeding on the basis there is no identification evidence (don’t forget – you never con- firmed that you were the driver!).
But even if you have no defence then I would still like to negotiate to try to get the charges down. Yes it is too late to nominate yourself as the driver now, but we may be able to agree a basis of plea with the prosecution where- by if you plead guilty to speeding theywithdrawfailing to give information – meaning you would be at risk of three points instead of six. These are certainly judicious nego- tiations I would like to have with the prosecution behind the scenes before we go into Court.
Q
I’m being prosecuted for drink driving. I’m devas- tated. I’m a taxi driver and I have a young family, and my licence means everything to me. This wasn’t even my fault. I was at the pub for the
semi-final and my friends were all buying rounds of drinks. I was asking for single vodka and Cokes, but dou- bles were on offer and so my friends were getting me doubles without telling me. I thought I only had three singles throughout the game but actually I had three doubles and I ended up being over the limit. I want to take this to court because it wasn’t my fault. I told my friends they will need to give a statement but they won’t unless I can guarantee they won’t get into trouble.
A
Drink-driving is an extremely serious offence that carries amandatoryminimum12-month disqualifi- cation (possibly more depending on the reading), an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison.
From what you have said you may have a ‘Special Rea- sons’ argument available. A special reasons argument is where a person is guilty of an offence (in your case you were still technically over the limit even though it was not your fault) but the court find that there are special
AUGUST 2018
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