Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Speeding and other criminal offences => Topic started by: Speed on April 11, 2026, 03:17:50 pm
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My friend started to use a road
Assuming that you don't mean "friend" in the same sense as "my friend has a rash", my first question would be what value you are adding to the process by acting as an intermediary, rather than your friend posting himself first hand.
I read on google that if you have more than 9 NIPs, you should seek the advice of a motor offence solicitor. I wonder if it is best he do that straightaway?
I'm going to go ahead and say that you never read that anywhere. You probably read that if you have 9 or more points and are one conviction away from a totting ban, that you should seek the advice of a motoring offence solicitor. 9 points is a significant number. 9 NIPs simply means that you are royally screwed. From a clean licence, 5 NIPs (when you were the driver) would result in a minimum of 12 points (unless you had a viable defence), if you were offered and took an SAC for one of them. So, presumably your attention to detail and ability to accurately convey what you read somewhere is the value you are adding to the process...
Legal professionals will variously tell you that you don't need a lawyer or do need a lawyer, based largely on whether or not they are charging for their time.
What is the best course of action? Complete the forms and return them as requested to confirm that he is the driver but should he include a cover letter to explain why he missed the speed limit signs, or will that make it worse?
Speeding is a strict liability offence - if you exceed the speed limit, you commit the offence, regardless of whether or not you intended to break the law. On the face of it, a covering letter explaining that you didn't intentionally broke the law, but you committed the offences due to committing a separate offence of driving below the standard expected of a careful and competent driver, is not the most cunning plan ever devised.
He has 27 days from date of service of each NIP (28 days beginning with...) to name the driver. N.B. The response must be served (delivered) within that timescale, not merely posted within the 27 days. Absent the most contrived Royal mail delays, he should probably have received all the NIPs he's going to receive well before he needs to send the first response. How many NIPs he actually receives would affect aspects of the best courses of action. Unless
The FPSU/CTO is mostly a sausage machine, and there is no formal process to appeal or otherwise attempt to persuade them not to proceed - BUT, in the past there have been cases where a human has exercised discretion in response to a covering letter regarding the potential consequences of what was essentially a single mistake being repeated, and due to the offences all being committed before the first NIP was received, being unaware of the error and the need to raise the standard of driving. Not many, but if you don't ask, you don't get. We have also had posters asking us if it was worthwhile sending a covering letter - which translates to "I know I'm facing a 6 month totting up ban, but I really can't be bothered in trying to do anything for myself to try to avoid the ban, unless there's a good chance of it working". In my own experience, if you phone the FPSU/CTO and speak to them nicely, once they get over the shock, they can be quite helpful and human.
Regardless, it is generally advantageous to send all the responses together in the same envelope if you can.
For multiple alleged offences in the same 20 limit, I would also suggest obtaining a copy of the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) from the relevant authority, and checking that it is valid (or posting it up here and asking us to see if we can pick any holes in it). The chances of the Order being defective are small, but if the Order is defective, there never was a 20 limit.
As damage limitation, *if* he ends up getting say 10 NIPs (or 9 NIPs which apparently is a significant number) and all pleas for clemency fall on deaf ears, he would want all the charges to be heard at the same time (other than possibly accepting 3 COFPs to keep the fines down). If he is going to get more than 12 points, he wants to get the additional points at the same time - reaching 12 or more points triggers a totting up ban (subject to Exceptional Hardship). If he tots up to 12 or 30 points at that hearing, it is the same process. He either gets a totting ban and those points are wiped, or his exceptional hardship argument succeeds. If this happens when he has more offences still hanging over him, the points go on his licence, and/or he can't use the same exceptional hardship argument a second time within 3 years.
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There is absolutely no point in your friend sending a covering letter: the police will process the (alleged) offences according to their normal procedures. The time for an EH plea is when - as seems likely - the matter proceeds to court and he faces disqualification.
BTW any "explanation" which involves looking at a screen rather than the road, or suggests inattention, would be unwise. Anyway, no explanation is necessary.
Thank you. I have never had a speeding ticket before so I don't know the process. The NIPs don't ask for any explanation or admission of guilt. The form just ask to confirm if he is the driver and whether the address is correct. So you are right, the covering letter won't be of any relevance as I did think that the process will follow a due course and it isn't at the stage where anyone is looking into mitigating circumstances. At the moment, they just want to identify who the driver is and that is that.
I will advise him to return the NIPs as requested and await further results. If it gets to the court stage, he can then instruct a solicitor to help him plea his case. Thanks for your advice, and yeah, saying that he was oblivious to the signs and cameras is only going to be an additional offence of driving without due care and attention on top of the speeding as there is obviously an issue with his attention if he is not seeing these signs over the whole two weeks! He obviously needs to stop driving to be fair as he isn't seeing where he is going!
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There is absolutely no point in your friend sending a covering letter: the police will process the (alleged) offences according to their normal procedures. The time for an EH plea is when - as seems likely - the matter proceeds to court and he faces disqualification.
BTW any "explanation" which involves looking at a screen rather than the road, or suggests inattention, would be unwise. Anyway, no explanation is necessary.
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I read on google that if you have more than 9 NIPs, you should seek the advice of a motor offence solicitor.
I wonder why that would be?
He must respond to all the “requests for driver’s details” he receives. Failing to do so will see him commit more serious offences.
If he is likely to get five or more notices he will probably receive the offer of a course for one and offers of fixed penalties for the others (provided the alleged speed is not more than 34mph). He will not be able to accept the fourth of these because he will face a “totting up” ban (facing the receipt of twelve points within three years).
He can avoid such a ban if he can show that he or others will suffer “exceptional hardship” (EH) if he is disqualified. However, before he does this he should ensure that all he NIPs he is likely to receive have been served and that all the offences are dealt with. This is because he can only make one EH argument (using he same reasons) within three years. What he must avoid is to make a successful EH plea and then see further charges follow.
Since there are so many offences he may well decide not to accept a course and keep that option until after this is all done.
Not that it matters, but I find it hard to believe that he was so attentive to his satnav that he missed the ‘20’ signs on so many successive journeys.
Is there any reason why your friend cannot post on here himself?
should he reply to each NIPs as they arrive or should he wait for them all to come and send them all off in one go? It is a two weeks journey and he realised the mistake when he received the first one and so stopped doing it. So I am not sure how many that will be but I will ask him! It is likely to be more than 3 as he said he has 3 already and expects more! He could end up with 10!
should he complete the NIPs as required and sort the "EH" plea out later in due course when it comes to that process so should he write a cover letter with the NIPs return pleading the "EH"? He has asked me for advice so I am looking into all the possible ways to deal with this.
he has never had a speeding ticket before so this is the first time that this has happened and he has a HGV driving licence and I am told that would be looked upon as even worse as HGV drivers are meant to be better drivers!
I have no idea how he managed to miss the speed limit signs on so many days and he says he can't understand himself. This reason is not going to be acceptable to anyone as it does not seem feasible that you could continue to miss the signs so many times so it may not even work as a reason as no one will believe it!
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I read on google that if you have more than 9 NIPs, you should seek the advice of a motor offence solicitor.
I wonder why that would be?
He must respond to all the “requests for driver’s details” he receives. Failing to do so will see him commit more serious offences.
If he is likely to get five or more notices he will probably receive the offer of a course for one and offers of fixed penalties for the others (provided the alleged speed is not more than 34mph). He will not be able to accept the fourth of these because he will face a “totting up” ban (facing the receipt of twelve points within three years).
He can avoid such a ban if he can show that he or others will suffer “exceptional hardship” (EH) if he is disqualified. However, before he does this he should ensure that all he NIPs he is likely to receive have been served and that all the offences are dealt with. This is because he can only make one EH argument (using he same reasons) within three years. What he must avoid is to make a successful EH plea and then see further charges follow.
Since there are so many offences he may well decide not to accept a course and keep that option until after this is all done.
Not that it matters, but I find it hard to believe that he was so attentive to his satnav that he missed the ‘20’ signs on so many successive journeys.
Is there any reason why your friend cannot post on here himself?
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My friend started to use a road for a couple of weeks as he had a two week job on that route. It is 30mph limit road but for a small section around the school on the road this is reduced to 20mph.
He was paying attention to his Satnav and so did not notice the speed limit signs. As the NIPs are delayed in being sent out, he is now getting them all for the days that he was travelling over that road. He has 3 so far and expects more.
The three so far is 27mph, 24mph and 27mph.
What is the best course of action? Complete the forms and return them as requested to confirm that he is the driver but should he include a cover letter to explain why he missed the speed limit signs, or will that make it worse?
I read on google that if you have more than 9 NIPs, you should seek the advice of a motor offence solicitor. I wonder if it is best he do that straightaway?