Speeding Solicitors | Speeding Offence Lawyers

On this page:

• Going to Court for a speeding offence
• How to challenge a speeding offence
• Notice of Intended Prosecution
• A company charged with speeding
• A guide to speed cameras

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Have you been caught speeding?

Speeding is, in our view, one of the most over-prosecuted criminal offences in the country. Most motorists simply 'roll over' and take the points. But for those who know their rights, they may want to check the evidence first. 

Speeding will result in 3 - 6 penalty points and a fine up to £1000. Depending on the speed, the court may impose an immediate driving ban. If you ‘tot-up’ to 12 points within a three year period then you will be subject to a minimum 6 month ‘totting-up’ ban unless the court finds ‘exceptional hardship’. You can read more about exceptional hardship below. 

Any person charged with speeding has the right to check the evidence against them. Speeding offences begin in one of two ways;

1. You were stopped by the police
   

   If the police pulled you over, you were proabably given a verbal NIP. This would involve the officer cautioning you for the alleged offence and explaining that you would be reported for speeding. The officer may tell you that you can expect a Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty through the post or a summons to attend court. This, of course, depends upon the speed alleged and the number of points on your licence. Check the sentencing guidelines below.
   
   If you were pulled over by the police you have probably been caught on a hand-held laser device or a follow-check. You can read more about speeding devices on our Speed Camera Page. 

2. You were not stopped by the police
   

   This is by far the most common starting point for most motorists. It may be that the first you learn of the offence is the letter that comes through the post. It would be completely impractical to stop every motorists suspected of speeding (particularly where the device was 'unmanned'). Whatever device was used, there are ways to defend the case. 
   
   The first letter to arrive is the Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP). This will also be accompanied by a ‘s.172 notice’ requiring you to provide driver details. You should respond to the NIP as soon as possible as it is usually time-sensitive. Always seek legal advice before returning the NIP but be careful not to miss the deadline. Failing to Identify the Driver is an offence that carries 6 penalty points and a financial penalty. 

 

A summary by Conor Johnstone (Solicitor).

Remember, you are innocent until proven guilty! It is for the prosecution to prove the case against you, not for you to disprove it. The police and the Crown Prosecution Service are there to prosecute you. They are not going to do you any favours. You will only ever see the documents that the CPS wants you to see at the early stages of your case. You may not receive anything that could damage the prosecution's case against you - unless you ask for it.

As a specialist motoring defence solicitor, I regularly spend time in court speaking to prosecutors. It's no secret that the CPS financial budget is not big enough for evidence to be sent out to every motorist accused of speeding. I'm often told that there is no point in the CPS wasting time and money disclosing the evidence to you if you are going to plead guilty. I obviously take the opposite view; how can anyone plead guilty to a crime without first seeing the evidence?

Incredibly, even if you enter a not guilty plea and go to trial you may still not receive proper disclosure of the evidence. And believe me, the CPS is very reluctant to disclose anything to you that it does not want you to see. I have recently had one case – an ordinary speeding matter – where it took over 2 years trying to force the CPS to disclose documents that I wanted to see. It took numerous letters, faxes, court orders and 5 court hearings before the CPS finally dropped the case. The reason given by the CPS for dropping the case was “a lack of evidence”!

The fact that the vast majority of people plead guilty without obtaining and checking the evidence can actually work in your favour. In my view the police often take short cuts in the documentation and production of evidence. In other words, they don't always follow the rules!  

If you take the time to check the evidence against you, you may uncover mistakes made by the police and the CPS. I am often accused of winning cases on a technicality or by finding a ‘loophole’ in the evidence. So what! If a mistake has been made and the evidence is unreliable then you should not be convicted. Simple.

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What is a notice of intended prosecution?

If you are believed to have committed a speeding offence, you must be presented with a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) within 14 of having committed the offence. Service of the NIP can be by hand, by first class post or recorded delivery. You may receive the NIP directly from a police officer if you are stopped at the time of committing an offence, or you may receive one through the post. If a notice of intended prosecution is not received then a summons must be issued within 14 days.

Failing to comply with the above should result in the prosecution failing. The only exception is where you are not the registered keeper of the vehicle. If you lease your vehicle, for example, or it's owned by the company you work for, the NIP will not come directly to you. Instead, it will be served on the owner of the vehicle who is then required to identify the appropriate person. It could then take many months before an NIP is issued in your name.

There is no require on the police to prove that the NIP was received by the registered keeper within 14 days, only that the believe that it was. You may have a defence if you can persuade the court that the NIP did not arrive in time, or at all. This is known as 'non-receipt'.

If the vehicle is owned by a company the NIP will be issued in the company's name. Make sure the company name is correct on the NIP. If the company name, or any other details, on the NIP are wrong, the NIP may be invalid.

You can read more about a company's obligations below.

Do I have to respond to an NIP?

If the Notice of Intended Prosecution is addressed to you and you fail to respond within 28 days, you could commit a separate offence. This offence is known as 'failing to identify the driver', contrary to Section 172 Road Traffic Act 1988. It is punishable by a fine of up to £1000 and 6 penalty points. The CPS may also lay the original speeding allegation alongside this offence. Although, in reality, the chance of you being convicted of both is very low.

If you fail to ID the driver you might have a defence if you can show that reasonable and diligent enquiries could not determine who was driving at the relevant time.

It is clearly important to check if the Notice of Intended Prosecution ​you have received is valid. An invalid NIP could mean that the court cannot legally charge you for the alleged offence. Below we’ve listed a few common situations in which charges are often dropped due to an invalid NIP.

- No NIP given

If you were stopped by the police you probably received a fixed penalty or a ‘producer’. Sometimes this document, typically handed to a motorist at the roadside, has a notice of intended prosecution attached, warning you that you may be prosecuted. However, there may have been no NIP attached. You cannot be charged if you were not warned of the intention to prosecute.

Police rely on the fact that most motorists are ignorant of the law and just plead guilty, often preferring to accept a fixed penalty rather than challenge it.

- Verbal NIP

If your ‘speeding ticket’ did not include a NIP, the only realistic chance of a successful prosecution is if the officer gave you a verbal NIP. This raises an interesting point: what happens if you do not recall the officer giving you a verbal notice of an intended prosecution? How can the officer prove that he did, especially if no document was handed to you containing a NIP?

In fact, in the above situation you may not need to do much challenging at all. It is for the police (via the CPS) to prove the speeding allegation (not for you to disprove it). If your evidence is that you did not receive a NIP, the onus is on the CPS to prove that one was given to you within 14 days. If they cannot prove this, the case should fail.

No NIP = no conviction.

- Late NIP

Many speeding cases arise where the motorist was ‘flashed’ by a Gatso camera or caught by a laser device from a camera van. In these situations the motorist is not stopped at the scene and therefore the driver or registered keeper must receive a written NIP (along with a requirement to identify the driver) by post within 14 days.

This raises a practical problem for the police and the CPS and gives rise to a possible ‘notice of intended prosecution loophole’ for the motorist. If you claim that you did not receive the NIP in the post, the police must prove that they posted it. If they cannot do this, then charges are often dropped.

Even if the CPS can prove that the NIP was posted, can they prove that you received it? This is unlikely as NIPs are rarely sent using recorded delivery. Whilst there is a ‘presumption’ of delivery if the NIP was posted correctly, it is always open to the defendant to reject this presumption by giving evidence of non-receipt.

- I sent back the NIP

It may be that you complied with your duties under Section 172 Road Traffic Act and returned the NIP, identifying yourself as the driver. But what happens if the police didn't receive your response? You may receive one or two reminders to complete the NIP. Perhaps you assumed that these just 'crossed in the post'.

This type of scenario is often resolved by the motorist attending court to confirm that they returned the NIP by post. If the motorist has a witness who can confirm that the form was posted, or perhaps a scan of the completed NIP, this would certainly help. In our experience, motorists are likely to be believed by the magistrates and acquitted of the offence.

If a motorist who runs this line of defence is convicted, they have an automatic right of appeal to the Crown Court.

- NIP for more than one offence

If you have been charged with more than one offence, you should receive a Notice of Intended Prosecution for each offence. For example, if you received a NIP at the roadside for speeding but, several weeks later when the summons arrived it also charged you with careless driving, you should not be convicted of careless driving because no NIP had been given to you for this particular offence.

- Errors with the NIP

Errors in the way that the NIP is addressed – for instance a misspelling of your name – sometimes provide an adequate reason that you may not have received the NIP, and as a result charges are dropped.

If there is an error relating to the time and place of the alleged offence, the case against you may also fail. For example, an alleged offence on “the Hothfield to Bethersden road” may not be sufficient enough information to identify the precise location of the offence, and the prosecution may fail as a result.

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Many companies provide company cars for their employees. Some companies own the vehicles, others lease them. As we have discussed above, this distinction will determine who first receives the Notice of Intended Prosecution.

If the company is a registered keeper of the vehicle, the NIP should be issued within 14 days.

If the company is not the registered keeper, the NIP will first be sent to the owner of the vehicle (usually a lease company). There could be three or four NIP's issued in different names before the driver actually receives his.

There is a duty on a company to keep adequate records of who drives its vehicles. You can read more about criminal charges against a company on our Failing to Identify page.  

 

Please contact us for help and advice on how to deal with and defend a notice of intended prosecution.

For an informal discussion of your case please telephone Marcus on 07808 553 555. If you would prefer not to telephone, please complete the online assessment form.