Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Speeding and other criminal offences => Topic started by: triflemail218222 on May 06, 2026, 12:49:13 pm
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Just a couple of questions, the answers to which may alter the advice given.
How many points were on your licence before this conviction?
How long have you held a full licence?
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There are two aspects to this.
First of all, you were convicted by a court under proceedings of which you were not aware. The normal way to deal with this is to make a “Statutory Declaration” to that effect. The conviction and all the penalties that went with it are expunged and the charge(s) will be put to you again.
In your circumstances, provided you were the driver at the time of the speeding allegation, you can ask the prosecutor to drop the “Fail to Provide Details” (FtP) charge if you plead guilty to speeding. This is usually accepted and - provided your speed was not particularly excessive - you will finish up with a much less serious conviction (with a lower impact on any future insurance premiums), fewer points and a lower fine.
The other issue is the level of the fine. Firs of all, the speeding charge is a dead duck as they have no proof that you were driving. The FtP offence attracts a fine of 1.5 times your net weekly income. Since the court had no details of your income, they would have used a default figure of £440pw. As well as that you will be charged a “victim surcharge” of 40% and prosecution costs. So you would have been fined £660, a surcharge of £264 and £90 costs which equals £1,014.
If you want to go through that process it is unlikely that you will be able to do so without attending court. But it’s worth a try.
If you simply want to challenge the level of the fine, the normal way to do that is to ask to to have your case reopened under s142 of the Magistrates’ Court Act. That section is designed principally to allow mistakes to to be rectified. But if the court had no details of your income, they would have proceeded perfectly properly in imposing a £660 fine, so I doubt a request to reopen would be successful. In any case, it would only be beneficial to you if your weekly income is less than £440. If it is more, you could find the fine increased.
I cannot progress through the process you have provided a link to because I do not have a valid URN, so I don’t know how it works. But I would imagine, depending on your responses, it will guide you to one or other of the two processes I described.
If you’re not bothered about the conviction, the points and a “totting up” disqualification (as well as the impact all that will have on any future insurance premiums) then there’s really no point in doing much at all.
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https://review-magistrates-court-decision.form.service.justice.gov.uk
This is the link
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Why don't you give us the link, so we can see what you're working with, and whether that's the best course?
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So did this form they sent you a link to not have anything to identify it by?
Like a name or a title...?
Its a called "Review a magistrates' court decision", on the .gov website.
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So did this form they sent you a link to not have anything to identify it by?
Like a name or a title...?
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I would be interested to know why you don't care about the ban, the insurance companies will not look favourably on the fail to furnish.
Well to be honest, I have just accepted it. I believe if I plead guilty or not, I have totted up the points. So I am going to be banned either way. I am not driving right now. I can survive where I am without driving.
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I would be interested to know why you don't care about the ban, the insurance companies will not look favourably on the fail to furnish.
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Yes after I called them, they sent me a link via email. Basically saying I have 21 days from when I found out that the case went to court without me and to decide what I should do. While filling out the form it also asks if I plead guilty or not. I don't really want to travel to the UK just for a court case, plus I didn't update my log book, so it's not guaranteed to go my way from my understanding.
So Im not sure if I should plead guilty and send a mitigating statement exampling everything and asking for a reduced fine.
Or if I plead not guilty, and send the statement? But will that just open a can of worms?
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Oh, you got a link to a form. Mystery solved.
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Are you saying here that you have filled in a statutory declaration to say you were unaware of proceedings at the time, and the court have asked you to provide a G or NG plea with that statement?
I have not filled in anything yet.
The court proceedings had already happened in my absence.
When found out about it, I called the court but I was still not sure what I was charged with and what to do. They told me that it all had been going to the wrong address and gave me a link to a form where I have to fill out a mitigating statement and it also asks on the form if I plead guilty or not guilty to these offences.
They did forward me a document to my email that had a SJPN, on that it has the failure to identify driver offence and speeding. It was a 59 mph in a 50mph controlled speeding zone.
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Yep, but you left out some detail again.
When I called the court and said everything had been sent to the wrong address they asked me to submit a mitigating statement. In the form I have to plead guilty or not guilty to the failure to identify driver offence.
Are you saying here that you have filled in a statutory declaration to say you were unaware of proceedings at the time, and the court have asked you to provide a G or NG plea with that statement?
What are the charges? Were you dual charged with both the FTF and the speeding charge at the time? All the relevant information you can provide around the original charge(s) and what the court initially sent you plus what they have sent you now, is meaningful.
A stat dec sets aside the original conviction and resets it back to summons stage. But you need a copy of the charge sheet before you can decide to plead guilty or not guilty. Although for expediency, it seems the courts like to bypass this and move straight onto plea.
But if you have both charges presented, then you can offer to plead guilty to the underlying speeding offence if they will drop the failure to furnish details charge.
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This is the timeline of events:
Timeline of Events
07 August 2025 Alleged speeding offence (no knowledge of this at the time).
31 August 2025 Departed the United Kingdom to work and travel abroad.
11 September 2025 Date of alleged offence for failing to provide driver information (unknown to me at the time).
(August–December 2025) Correspondence relating to the 07 August offence sent to an old address listed on the vehicle logbook (V5C), which had not been updated
13 April 2026 First time I became aware of any issue relating to the 07 August offence, upon receiving a court letter regarding failure to provide driver information.
17 April 2026 (following contact with the court) Confirmed that correspondence for the 07 August offence had been sent to an outdated address.
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The best option is to post a coherent version of events.
You have been convicted of the s. 172 offence, and are asking us how you should plead to it. You have already had a conversation with the court, and have provided a meaningless account of it.
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I committed a speeding offence in August 2025. I didn't know of the fine or offence because I stupidly didn't update my Log book. So everything was sent to the wrong address. I didn't know about anything until DVLA sent me a letter asking for my drivers license in April 2026, as I will be banned for six months.
I don't mind the driving ban but the fine is £1014.
When I called the court and said everything had been sent to the wrong address they asked me to submit a mitigating statement. In the form I have to plead guilty or not guilty to the failure to identify driver offence.
I just want to get the fine reduced as I am broke at the moment.
I also don't want it to go to court as I am out of the country for work and don't want to pay more for a plane ticket to come back to the UK just for a court hearing.
Should I plead guilty to the failure to submit driver?
Is it possible if I say in the mitigating statement that I can take the ban but can the court just reduce the fine for now without it going to court?
Or should I just take it on the head and pay the fine, move on?
Whats my best option here?