Welcome back to the channel and happy Friday, we're back in Lawchester with Mr Swift known
to his friends as Speedie who is worried that he's been caught by a speed camera on two
occasions one by a fixed camera one by a manned speed trap on the side of the road but first
of all if you're just joining our legal community and you've got questions of you're own, don't
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there and leave your comments for the next one Mr Swift in case you haven't drives around
fairly fast Andy is frequently worried about getting caught by the fixed speed cameras
all mobile speed cameras that you've seen either in the vans or handheld speed guns
by police officers as you can imagine there are thousands of people every single day that
are caught speeding either by the fixed camera at the side of road all by a police officer
either by standing with a radar gun or in a van and when this happens as the whole process
that set off in the background and most of this is automated and within 14 days of being
caught you should receive through the post notice of intended prosecution notice of intended
prosecution should come out automatically to the address that the car is registered
to that's right is very important to make sure that that address is kept up to date
otherwise you may not receive it along with the NI P which is known in short should also
be a section 172 notice requiring you to provide details of who was driving the car the reason
for this is that the cameras will ordinarily not capture a good enough photograph to show
who was driving and even if the photograph does indicate who is driving you may still
receive a section 172 notice requiring you putting you under a duty to provide details
of who was driving the vehicle at that time they were allowed to require this information
from you if you are alleged to be guilty of an offence such a speedy now Mr Spring should
take this letter very seriously because failing to respond to this letter is in itself a separate
criminal offence which would carry more points than his original speeding did in the first
place so he could get six points and a fine for failing to respond to this letter and
Mr Swift is a bit concerned because he is not entirely sure whether it was Henry's wife
that was driving the vehicle at the time because they do share the vehicle from time to time
in response to the section 172 noticed Mr Smith could nominate his wife or any other
person that was driving the vehicle at the time if Mr Swift wasn't sure who was driving
at the time he is expected to exercise reasonable diligence to find out who it was that under
subsection 4 of section 172 so what this means in practice is Mr strip should go back through
his diary find out what he was doing on that day where he was on that day where his wife
was on that day if she sometimes uses the vehicle and this is a duty upon him to exercise
that reasonable diligence to find out who now I must stress that it wouldn't be good
enough for Mr Swift to respond to say I just don't know who it was thinking that you'll
get away with it without showing that he's done this with reasonable diligence and still
couldn't find out in other words if the responses will I genuinely don't know who was driving
the swing will be expected to show that he's done some reasonable diligence and he just
cannot find out which of them was I must also flag up a surreal morning here because in
some cases some people ask their spouse or some other person to take the blame for this
speeding perhaps because they reached nine points and if they roll at 12 they might have
a totting up ban that they will be banned for a period of time I'll discuss this in
another video in this case if this person is asking someone else to effectively take
the blame and take any points that come with the speeding this is perverting the course
of justice and the person doing so both people doing so may well be prosecuted for perverting
the course of justice it goes without saying this is a far more serious offence than the
original speeding was in the first place so the firmest possible advice you must not nominate
someone else if you know that it was you driving the car and you were speeding at the time
if you genuinely don't know who it was that was driving but you have exercised reasonable
diligence as to which of you was then you can respond to say that you don't know but
provide enough information to show that you've done this due diligence if you're in the position
where you were already responding but you still have changed your mind about the situation
the police will very often allow you a second opportunity to correct that information before
deciding to prosecute you I should also say that you won't necessarily be going to court
when you respond to this notice of intended prosecution the wording makes it sound very
much like going to court because you've been caught speeding but very often if you respond
to written you tell the police that you were the one driving and you were the one speeding
very often the police will offer you a fixed penalty without going to court if you're offered
a fixed penalty you usually have to pay a \'a3100 fine with three points on your licence
although sometimes will be offered a speed awareness course instead perhaps if it's your
first time speeding or you haven't been caught speeding for a long time if you dispute that
you were speeding which you are entitled to do you will have to go to the magistrates
court for a trial although you must remember that there is likely to be additional costs
and a higher fine if you do challenges in court and still lose if you dispute that you
are speeding there is a time limit within which you can be prosecuted which is six months
and this is held very strictly in one such case the evidence unfolded in court around
the dispute as to whether the offence was committed before or after midnight the result
of it was that the information that is the information that must be laid before the magistrate
to start the prosecution was one day late meaning the prosecution was out of time and
the case thrown out but Mr Swift should rely is because in the vast majority of cases the
prosecution would be started well within time or even if it the week before the end of that
time.
It will still be valid you may have heard of lots of people that have had points added
to their licence and their insurance premium gone up as a result without even knowing about
it this usually comes about when your address hasn't been updated with the DVLA and all
of the letters gone to the wrong address and you knew nothing about it and in that scenario
you've been convicted in your absence and you have the points added to your licence
and you didn't even know about it and you were given the opportunity to defend it or
to nominate another driver if it wasn't you in this case section 14 of the magistrates
Courts act 1980 allows you to make a statutory declaration to declare that you genuinely
do not know about the proceedings against you and you didn't have the opportunity to
make representations or to instruct a lawyer to make representations on your behalf this
effectively resets the conviction and allows you the opportunity to plead not guilty if
you genuinely believe you weren't feeling all that it wasn't you in the car was driving
and speeding at the time but obviously if you get the details and you find out that
it really was you then there is no point in making the statutory declaration because it
may still have been easier cheaper and less of an effect on you to accept those points
and the fine in the first place so just to reconfirm to Mr Swift the magistrates are
very well aware that lots of people will say that they don't know who was driving but they
will be expected to show that they've done reasonable diligence to find out who it was
that was driving simply saying I don't know without more simply won't be good enough and
simply ignoring the letter is not an option it's a really bad idea because itself is a
separate offence which can be much worse than the original speeding and just a brief word
on speed limits although I will discuss it in a lot more detail in another video to make
sure you subscribe for that but a lot of people think that there is a 10% +2 rule and one
police officer on tick-tock even said that it was built into legislation this is not
the case is not built into legislation speed limits are exactly as they sound they are
limits on speed however most police services do have a guide to which the police officers
will work when looking at speeding offences but it differs from county to county so you
should look those up depending on where you live most of those broadly speaking will have
a tolerance which is in lots of cases 10% +2 of the speed limit I for one would certainly
not be relying on this and I would stick to the speed limits so thank you for joining
us in law tester no doubt there will be lots of questions and comments which you can drop
down below I'll try to pick those up either in the comments or in another video or perhaps
a run blackbelt secret in the meantime don't forget to subscribe and thanks for watching