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Conditional offer of fixed penalty

sebrussellsmith

sebrussellsmith

PCGB Member
Member
What experience has anyone got of asking for photographic and technical evidence before accepting the offer and paying the fixed penalty? Furthermore, I was under the impression speed awareness courses are offered as a substitute. what's the likelihood of asking for one and getting it?
I have a feeling this might open a big debate.
Thanks for any advice.
 
You will certainly be eligible for the speed awareness course if you haven't done one in the last 3 years.
 
Firstly, was it you? Check with the photo, it might be a car with a cloned number. Don't go to Court; you will almost certainly lose, you will pay Court fees, you will be fined pro-rata (bad if you are wealthy), and you will have to pay victim surcharge. 58 in a 50 = 3 penalty points and 50% of your net take home pay.
 
you could request the photo's but youve indirectly admitted the offence if youve already filled in the NIP
 
Not all Police authorities offer speed awareness courses but I would expect them to have offered you one if it was available since the forces who do offer them believe in them - unlike the Government, who wanted to abolish them. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7942813/Soaring-demand-for-speed-awareness-courses-as-motorists-avoid-penalty-points.html
At the start of this year, speed awareness courses were offered by 28 forces in England and Wales. Now the figure is 35.
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Chris #88.
 
ORIGINAL: rob.kellock You would be entitled to the evidence if you are prosecuted and enter a not guilty plea. Derek outlines the risks of so doing above.
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Colin, we are in agreement. But my experience is at least several hundred more cases!!!
 
I would ask for the photo's as a matter of course & see what you get, I would double check that all of the evidence you have been sent is totally factually correct. all of the other evidence calibration cert's ect will only be provided on the day of a court case. I spent a year fighting an alleged speeding offence & failing to fill out the NIP. They will send you lots of bullying aggressive letters if you choose to fight it to try & scare you in to admitting the offence. I thought signing the NIP was admitting the offence, hence why i didn’t. Anyway long story cut short my case got thrown out of court in 3 minutes due to ambiguous evidence put forward by the Police which i made them aware of before they issued the summons, they won’t actually read your evidence, they will just insist it goes to court if you don’t admit to the offence. Good luck Regards Karl
 
My experience is that photo s & calibration information were not offered unless you challenged & go to court & then Derek's comments become very pertinant. You should be offered the course being only 1mph over the standard figure-in my case,my wife & I both thought that the Golf in front accelerated away triggering the Gatzo & this showed in the photostrip we were able to access on the Northumberland camera website,but not worth challenging -my sat nav showed 33 as the camera flashed.Course cost less than the fixed penalty & of course no points.
 
a) they might have lost them b) there might be someone passing you in the picture ..
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No chance, Maurice - they have everything up on a website before you can say ‘you’re nicked’[8|]. I have recently received one for doing 37 in a 30 in my Lupo, which I have admitted as I was the driver. As I said, the photo is for you to see on the website, together with the supposed calibration certificate. The best bit is Herts Constabulary (amongst others) operate a Speed Awareness course, which effectively gets you off the 3 points and £60 fine, as long as the figure fits within these bands (and you haven’t taken a similar course within the last 3 years): Speed Limit 30, speed to be eligible: up to 42 Speed Limit 40, speed to be eligible: up to 53 Speed Limit 50, speed to be eligible: up to 64 Speed Limit 60, speed to be eligible: up to 75 Speed Limit 70, speed to be eligible: up to 86 The actual cost varies from county to county (from about £80 to £95) as they all operate different versions of this awareness course. A pain in the b*tt, but better than getting the points, I reckon... might even learn something[:)].
 
I had to go all the way up to Cramlington New Town for my course-fortunately,our daughter lives down the road so we combined it with a weekend up there. The course was taken by a private driving training company,who actually canvassed for commercial business during the evening session & was entirely computer screen based with an initial test run with the warning that if you didn't take it seriously ,your penalty would revert to a fine with points. My course had a speed limit recognition video where you had to select the answer on a multiple choice answer paper-a mixed driving video using the keyboard to highlight potential danger points as you notionally drove the different routes & if I remember correctly,a multiple choice test on general driving topics. You got feedback on your answers reflecting your overall driving attitude. Funny thing was that virtually all the people attending seemed to be elderly sober type mature persons who drove Golfs,Toyota Corrolla's Vauxhall Astra's,Nissan Almeria's etc with no souped up Saxo's,GTI's etc driven by young men. Apart from the trek up there,I actually quite enjoyed it. Why did I get caught?---we had crawled for 2/3 miles in roadworks through Hayden Bridge on the A69 towards Newcastle where it has a 30mph limit with a Gatso on the bridge about 20 yds from the derestriction sign & as we approached the camera,the Golf in front accelerated away from us -increasing the gap rapidly I was gently accelerating from the 20 mph & as above was doing 33 mph as the satnav bleeped-we felt the Golf triggered the Gatso & possibly both of us got photo'ed,but at the course I didn't see a Golf that matched. Once I had registered on the course,with a ref no,I had access to a lot of information on the Northumberland Speed Camera website-like where the active cameras were that week ,& where over the following weeks-how many were active & all the policy relating to the reasons for siting them where they were,etc.
 
Thanks for all your input. Most of you think a speed awareness course should be offered. I wish it was but even doing 58 in a 50 limit it seems the only option is points according to the conditional offer. Either that or court. I still think there is nothing wrong with pushing to see the evidence - not to confirm I was driving but to understand how it is worked out. After all it was an average speed camera not a gatso.
 
I don't understand - if you have already returned the NIP then I would have expected an offer of the course rather than just a conditional offer of a fixed penalty. I'd ring the Council for the area and ask them. The speed is well within the normal guidelines. Each area has its own policy though. As i hinted at before, it takes a summons and a not guilty plea for CPS involvement and for the evidence to be disclosable. Some areas will provide voluntary disclosure at an earlier stage though. Can be a very expensive gamble these days, you don't recover all your costs if you win anymore. Guideline fine at court is broadly a week's income plus £85 CPS costs plus £20 victim surcharge on an early guilty plea. Take it to trial and lose and prosecution costs will be £450+. It's a system designed to make the fixed penalty look attractive. PM me or ring me on Monday if you want to talk it through 01772 828382.
 
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