Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Speeding and other criminal offences => Topic started by: toto1283 on March 12, 2026, 11:43:07 am
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Step by step this is what happened:
I moved house at the end of December 2024. In September 2025, I was flashed by a speed camera. At the time, I was unaware that I also needed to update the address on my V5C logbook. When I changed the address on my driving licence, I believed that this would automatically update where any notices or tickets would be sent. Unfortunately, this was my mistake.
After moving, we continued to regularly check the mailbox at our previous address in case any letters arrived there. This was because we are a large family and some services may not have had our updated address. We also have friends who live in the area, so we were able to check the mailbox frequently.
During the period when we were regularly checking the mailbox, we did not see the Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) or the letter offering the Speed Awareness Course (SAC). We have an address that is very similar to ours and we have a very long history of letters and parcels being sent to that wrong address(this can be evidenced on multiple occasions)
It was only on 16 January that I received a letter at my new address stating that I must either accept a fixed penalty of 3 points and a £100 fine, or take the matter to court. I contacted the police to explain the situation, and the lady I spoke with advised that because a Speed Awareness Course had previously been offered but not accepted, I was no longer eligible for it. She mentioned that they had checked the police systems to get our new address.
The court response period has now passed, and I have since received a court summons letter, despite trying to explain the situation and actively being in contact with the police.
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So what has happened since you found out about all this?
From what you say, nothing has. Bu I could be wrong because you haven't told us.
If that is the case, you can look forward to a "Single Justice Procedure Notice" informing you that court proceedings have been taken. These will charge you with "Failing to Provide Driver's Details" and hopefully the original speeding offence. The first of these carries six points.
When you say that it had been “brought to your attention” because the police tracked you down, what did they say when they informed you?
You need to tell us what has happened in detail because the learned moderator becomes impatient if we have to draw information from you, drip by drip.
How you stand legally depends very much on what the police now intend to do. But one thing is a certainty – at more than four months after the original offence you can dismiss from your mind any idea that a course may still be a possibility.
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The last part of the final final sentence sums it up. Unless the force failed to serve the NIP within 14 day (and I suspect it was), you are absolutely responsible.
You could contact the force and see if they will take a late name response but at 4+ months on it is a slim hope.
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At the time, the vehicle’s V5C was still registered to my old address.I mistakenly assumed that updating the address on my driving licence would also update the vehicle record with DVLA, which I now understand isn’t the case.
Because of that, the original Notice of Intended Prosecution and follow-up correspondence were sent to my old address.
I wasn’t aware of any of this at the time. The reason I later found out about it was because the police checked their systems and located my current address through updated records. That’s when the matter was brought to my attention and I was told that a Speed Awareness Course had previously been offered.
I didn’t ignore the notice or refuse to identify the driver — I simply didn’t know it had been issued because it had been sent to the old address.
We do still check the old address periodically, but none of the relevant letters were found during that time.
Now that I’m aware of it, I’m trying to understand where I stand legally and whether there is any possibility of resolving it, or if the fact that the V5C address hadn’t been updated means that the responsibility ultimately falls on me.
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You are David Lynch and I claim my $5.
Despite checking the old house for post roughly every 3 days, you only saw the NIP (which is only mentioned in the subject heading and not in the body of the post at all) 4 months later (than some unspecified date or event).
So, the first issue is that on the face of it you have committed an offence contrary to s. 172(3) RTA 1988 by failing to provide the required information in the 28 days beginning with the date of service. Whether you have since named yourself as the driver and whether the CTO have accepted a late nomination is currently a matter for conjecture (give us a frickin clue).
You claim that you were apparently offered an SAC, but that the letter offering the course has not been located, despite the diligent checking of post at the old house that took 4 months to locate the NIP. The obvious question is how do you know that a course was [apparently] offered if you did not receive the letter - unless there has been some minor triffling development in the case, such as an SJPN having been issued, which was reasonably considered too trivial to bother mentioning.
So, what actually happened, in chronological order, rather than an ill-advised homage to Twin Peaks?
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Based on the wrong address on the V5C, the postal issues at a completely different address are irrelevant.
Assuming you are still allowed to accept the CoFP, I would take that and move on. Update your V5C (if not already done).
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Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice about a speeding situation and whether there’s any chance of resolving it.
I was caught doing 24mph in a 20mph zone and was apparently offered a Speed Awareness Course. However, I never saw the letter offering the course until after the deadline had already passed.
The issue is that it was sent to my old address. I’m a new driver and I made the mistake of assuming that when I updated the address on my driving licence, that would also update where things related to my vehicle (like tickets) are sent. I’ve since learned that the vehicle logbook (V5C) with the DVLA needs to be updated separately, which I hadn’t done at the time. That was my mistake.
On top of that, we have an ongoing issue with post being delivered to the wrong address in our area. We actually go to the old house roughly every 3 days to check in case anything important has been delivered there. During the time the course letter was sent, nothing had arrived there when we checked.
We also have a long history of written evidence and complaints about parcels and letters being delivered to the wrong house on our old address, so this has been a recurring problem.
If I had seen the letter in time, I would have taken the Speed Awareness Course immediately. Instead, I missed the opportunity because I didn’t know about it.
Given that the address on the V5C hadn’t been updated at the time (my mistake), but there is also a history of postal delivery issues, is there any realistic chance of asking for the course to be reinstated or challenging this? Or is it likely the court would simply say it was my responsibility to update the V5C?
Any advice would be really appreciated.