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Messages - Piquet13

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Speeding and other criminal offences / Re: 51mph in a 30
« on: December 20, 2025, 10:19:47 pm »
Given there's a pretty significant development, I wasn't sure how best to get responses. I didn't want to just be accused of bumping a 120 day old thread which is pretty much what I was warned about when I went to reply with the update in the old thread.
But as evidenced by the fact its 3 days later and no responses putting it in an old thread achieved nothing.
I'm looking for advice as to my concerns especially as the advice provided to me originally was both extremely helpful but also nailed on!

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Speeding and other criminal offences / Update on old post - Doing 51 in a 30 - SJPN received
« on: December 18, 2025, 01:53:27 pm »
Here is my original post.
https://www.ftla.uk/speeding-and-other-criminal-offences/51mph-in-a-30/msg86020/#msg86020
Suffice to say I was seeking advice around mitigating circumstances for doing 51mph in a 30 and I got all the help I needed at the time.

I have today received the Single Justice Procedure Notice (Exactly 4 months on)
I of course intend to plead guilty as there was no questioning the speed or the fact it was myself driving.

I have 3 questions around this though that I would appreciate any guidance on:

1) Under the 'Guilty' Plea section it asks me to provide any details I might want the court to consider about my guilty plea. This is optional but I assume its to cover for any mitigating circumstances which whilst I think I could provide, none come close to justifying the speeding or the fact 51 mph was reached.
Am I better off not putting anything down in that case? I ask because I assume the risk might even be it could harm my case by implying negligence or a lack of remorse.
The two primary points I would be making are that I do need my license as there is travelling required for my current employer as a risk and compliance consultant and also until now I have always had a clean driving license.

2) Am I better off going to court in this situation? In that it shows acknowledgement of guilt more directly as opposed to just avoidance or could it damage the case further much as with the above around making pointless statements - if I am asked to say anything and imply innocence or a lack of acceptance this could only serve to annoy the magistrate resulting in a more severe punishment.
I note this is really just your opinion, and that if I really want advice then contacting a legal adviser is the way to go.


3) Finally assuming the best case scenario of say a fine and 6 points - does this then constitute as having a "criminal record" as opposed to say a 3 pts and a £100 fine which albeit must be captured during car insurance policy applications does not need reporting when saying applying for a job.
I ask because I am travelling to the USA in 2026 and the visa application (ESTA) which I will need to complete asks whether you have a criminal record? I assume I will have to say that I do but wanted to double check.

Appreciate any responses to the above questions, thankyou ahead of time.

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Speeding and other criminal offences / Re: 51mph in a 30
« on: August 17, 2025, 05:09:54 pm »
I'd just like to call out NewJudge, JustLoveCars and The Slithy Tove for their comments which in the main have been extremely helpful.
I have found myself very heavily depressed I'd say its almost like a bruise... from the time I received this news and ever since, during the last 48 hrs or so
but your comments have helped me process the situation and removed some of the uncertainty which is exactly what I needed. so thanks again

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Speeding and other criminal offences / Re: 51mph in a 30
« on: August 17, 2025, 05:06:48 pm »
Quote from: roythebus on August 17, 2025, 01:50:18 pm
Quoting from NewJudge above: "As well as that, there are not many road cars that can reach 50mph in two seconds. This, of course, may help your argument that you could not have been travelling at that speed. But it is far more likely, I think that your recollection of the event was not accurate in terms of distance travelled and/or time taken."

I did wonder how you could have achieved 0 to 51 mph in under 2 seconds. Maybe retrace your steps to see how far you actually did travel. 150m equals 12 buses.

May I also offer a word of advice, that it's not good practice to read headlight flashing as anything but a signal to warn you of the presence of another vehicle. Have a look in the highway code.

So just to respond to the distance thing that's been mentioned a couple of times -  I fully acknowledge that i may have made some misjudgements in my descriptions on here over this matter but already sensing the information and details on this were going to be irrelevant and not worth focusing on too much, I didn't spend a lot of my time whilst compiling the initial post on ensuring this element was mathematically accurate. I'm surprised its garnered the attention it has but suffice to say I went from '0' to '51' mph very rapidly through my acceleration and I did so in a very short distance (the exact distance being somewhere between 0metres and however long the front wall of the car park is because thats where the photo of me doing 51 mph was taken and also because the speed camera van as it has also turned out locates itself in the same spot regularly (its on the google map image right now of the location).
I would go to the bother of sharing the screenshots of the location and of the photo taken by the van but as has been established through the really helpful posts above from everyone (thanks again if your reading this) it really makes no difference to how I will need to act or what I can expect to happen.
My primary reason for even mentioning it was to bring focus on the brevity of my time at such a speed as opposed to other situations where the excessive speed is likely high and maintained for a longer duration. If that brevity might in someway go towards being deemed mitigation, however minor, against a harsher punishment then I would like to know how best to take that forwards. Again as has been made clear it doesn't matter if i was doing 51mph for 10 miles at 30 mph or 10m - I have broken the law and the law judges in a consistent way that does not include this factor.
However out of interest I have since establish through the picture that the distance

With regards to the car flashing its headlights - something that really has no relevance here and thus I'm not sure its adding much value, I find it hard to believe that in the same situation, if you were flashed by a car, whilst waiting to pull out of a junction or driveway etc, you would ignore it and wait for the vehicle (which has now stopped to let you out and is holding up traffic behind it in doing so), to restart its journey and pass by.
I am fully aware that this does not in anyway constitute any sort of defense as to why I was speeding at 51 mph, but it merely provided context as to how I acted following such a circumstance. I will for sure now need to re-assess my driving behavior but the mistake here was wholly down to the lack of control in my rate of acceleration, against the assigned speed limit in that location and its one I am going to learn a mighty harsh lesson over.

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Speeding and other criminal offences / 51mph in a 30
« on: August 16, 2025, 05:59:36 am »
Hi there, have today received the NIP that I was captured doing 51mph in a 30. I have just turned 50 and this is my first offence of this nature since I started driving at the age of 21. (I have had a couple of minor penalty notices like driving down a bus lane and parking on the zigzags of a pedestrian crossing which I assume do not count in relation to this and certainly happened enough years ago that my licence is currently clean)
I suffer terribly from anxiety so I say this not to use in my defence for speeding, but to justify the upcoming questions as any clarity on this helps me manage my anxiety much better.


I have a few questions about the specifics of the situation, that I assume will make no difference, but feel I have to ask someone and having discovered this forum, I suspect, its better I do it here than anywhere formal during proceedings:
1)
I was pulling out of a parking area for a local park, onto a main road, on the outskirts of my town.
I was flashed by a driver to go ahead of them, who in response to being so nice, as I pulled out, I accelerated hard to try not to delay their progress too much.
As I accelerated I saw the police and the mobile camera and albeit braking quickly, new I was likely caught speeding.
Based on the photos I have seen though I am amazed I got to 51mph. It was literally only a couple of seconds if that (the images show the walled car park in the background that I had just left and so I am still passing it and thus can evidence that I am within 100-150m or so of that exit) Anyway I absolutely suspected I may have been caught but as alluded I felt it was more like 35-40mph I was guilty of doing.
I am absolutely willing to put my hands up and accept I am guilty of speeding and clearly I am in the wrong and was unable to accurately judge the acceleration of my car and that is all on me but it was only momentarily as opposed to a consistent stretch or continually exceeding the speed limit if I was being followed down a motorway for example. The images don't convey this and I guess that's because its not relevant but having never been in anything like this situation before, I wanted to be sure that was the case, by mentioning it here.
My question really is whether, at any point, this information I have detailed is relevant and might be of any use?
I suspect not based on the research I have done on this site and other official sources but as 51mph is a significant threshold I wondered whether it might have helped reduce or mitigate the circumstances and avoid a court summons, which is apparently the most likely outcome.
For example not that money is the most important factor here but its the difference between £100 fine and a likely £1000 fine based on my salary.

2) Based on the above admittedly being trivial to the overall act of speeding, but nevertheless, where and when or how could I convey this? I didn't see much on the NIP or on the website (you go to, to identify yourself, which I have done straight away). I am mindful from what I have read that appearing to claim 'not guilty' or attempt to provide 'mitigation' likely creates far more issues than it potentially could ever avoid so I'd only want to add this info in the hope of the outcome being lessened, not to avoid accepting guilt as a whole. I note that there is an email address for 'Contact' on the NIP to the Camera Ticket Office but I assume this is not a 'relevant' department worth communicating with regarding the above?

3) Whilst reviewing the calibration certificates (the West Mercia Police site suggests this is almost mandatory by including it in the checklist of actions you should complete otherwise I'm not sure I would have even looked) I noticed that the final distance it is stated as 'passing' or being valid is 150m. I then noticed that the photos of me were taken at a distance of 155m. Is this at all relevant in questioning the validity of the offence? If this was a simple £100 fine and 3 points say at 45 mph I wouldn't even be posting on here but based on the speed I was caught at, it feels like there are so many more potentially worrying outcomes including a ban, albeit probably only brief that I need to be so much more prepared.
I also need to be able to drive for my job, but I am not claiming this as relevant in anyway to the outcome by the Police, but my employer might not take kindly to a ban of any duration so I worry I might be obligated to contest this purely on the grounds that remaining employed is more important to me than the risk of what pleading not guilty might lead to.

4) I have seen numerous references to the maximum fine being capped at £1000 unless its on a motorway. Does this include the surcharge and prosecution costs or can these take it over that figure?

Please again note that I have seen many of the responses on this site through the posts I have already read and I do understand most of the above is likely futile and maybe even construed as a waste of time, but by writing it all out like this, its helping me process it and thus helping me control my anxiety to a degree.
In short I'm asking for a small bit of tolerance if anything is stupid, futile or simply waffle.
Thanks for any responses ahead of time, I really do appreciate them and am so glad there was somewhere I could come to gain more clarity and seek advice.

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