Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Speeding and other criminal offences => Topic started by: Chelswilly on April 02, 2026, 06:58:54 am
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You cannot "reject" a NIP.
If the [unstated] offence is one to which s. 1 RTOA 1988 applies (a NIP or warning, etc. is required), then if you can convince the court (on the balance of probabilities) that no NIP was served on the driver or RK within the 14 days, then that is a defence.
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Usually in these cases it turns out the recipient is not actually the RK - i.e. the car is on lease / PCP or similar, and the finance Co is the RK. So, is the car leased / does your partner actually have the V5C in their possession, and is the address on it correct (don't assume, check!)?
However, as you say, the named recipient of the NIP must respond naming the driver, and you will then get one in your name - to which you must also respond. At this point, assuming that car is not leased etc, and V5C details correct, you can point out that the NIP was late. It may get dropped at that point, or you may be able to defend it in court on the basis that it was not served in time - or you may consider that taking the Conditional Offer (if you can) of a Speed course or 3 pts / £100 is the easier option.
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Hi everyone,
My partner (the RK of the car) received a NIP in the post.
Letter is dated 30th March but the offence took place on 25th January.
I was the driver at the time, not my partner, but due to the time passed surely we can reject as time barred?
Just wanted to try and find out the best course of action here.
We were going to respond to the NIP stating I was driving anyway as we have heard that not responding to that is an offence in itself, but how would we deal with the time passed situation?
Just to note:
The address details were correct so there is no reason why it shouldn’t have got to us within the 14 days.