If you have committed a speeding offence on, say, 12 June and Police serve you with a Notice of Intended Prosecution on 22 Aug which you receive a few days later, is this within the legal timeframe? This constitutes a delay of over 2 months! Is there or isn't there a period in which they are obliged to contact you? Andy
AFAIK it's supposed to be 14 days not including the day of alledged offence.
Look for the answer here:
..and it would seem that 6 months is the limit, sadly.
Lots of expertise on this in uk.rec.driving, where it would be on-topic.
Only to fuckwits...
In article , Eusebius writes
A faq on uk.legal, try google groups:
"The NIP must arrive within 14 days unless there are exceptional circumstances (such as the registered address of the keeper not being correct, for instance)." (or if the car is leased/ company car etc)
The NIP must be SENT within 14 days.
Would it hurt you to explain why ?
Not for this situation, as I understand it.
If a NIP is issued it must be delivered not later than 14 days from the offence ( a verbal NIP may be given by an officer at the time in which case the posted NIP can arrive later than 14 days - though it seems not to be strictly necessary to follow a verbal NIP with a written one).
It is the FPN that has a 6 month limit for issue.
Whether a FPN can be issued following the late arrival of a NIP is not clear.
Lets see, someone commits an offence, why should there be any limit. Why should a motoring offence be any different to any other offence / crime, indeed with many other crimes one could truly plead ignorance (if ignorance was an allowable defence), In the case of 'excess speed' on the 'Queens Highway' there can't be any such defence. Enforcement signs, stating the legal maximum speed for that section of road, are posted are intervals along the road, and even when no such signs exists there are other indications, such as being in a built up area or street lighting spaced no further apart than 100 meters - if one claims *not* to know the speed limit it is surely an admission of 'driving without due car and attention' [1] or driving a defective vehicle [2]!
[1] I heard of one person who got caught twice by the same camera, within an hour, once going to lunch and on his return from lunch - his defence was that he thought that the limit was 40 because it's a duel carriageway, even though it's a urban built up area and has street lighting spaced at 50 meters... [2] other than a few cases were the vehicle is to old to require the fitment of a working speedometer or being exempt.
Sadly...
However it is a perfectly valid defence to say that you don't know or can't remember who was driving at the time because there was a long interval between the alleged offence and the bringing of the preosecution.
My Mother-in-Law used exactly this as a defence and the magistrates accepted it.
Always assuming the signage is legally correct. It isn't always, size position, colours and background are all relevant. Same applies to speed camera warning signs. The rules are complex but available from one of goverment sites.
There is also a stretch of road close by where the speed limit changes seven or eight times within two miles. So, even if the signage is legally perfect you will sometimes be hard pushed to always remember what the last sign was (context helps somewhat).
Z.
It doesn't help to admit you can't drive. 8-)
Few people can, while trying to read their speedometers to 10% and the multitude of road signs (which may be obscured by hedges, parked vehicles and other traffic).
A fact which the government gleefully exploits to make yet more money out of motorists.
Where does reading a speedometer to 10% come in?
AFAIAA the speedometer is allowed a tolerance of +10% to - 0%, IOW it can indicate up to 10% higher than the true speed but no lower.
Rgds -
They shouldn't be allowed, unless the defendant is also claimed that the vehicle was also TWC.
It doesn't.. its standard excuse #13 for people caught speeding.
That would be correct, but only at 30mph IIRC
Its a good idea to check the speedo's calibration so that you don't have to slow down to 10mph below the speed limit everytime you see a speed camera like the speeders do.
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