Free Traffic Legal Advice

I recently became aware of 6 points on my licence and a conviction for failing to furnish ID (MS90) via my car insurance company contacting us about some difficulties with renewing the policy. The initial alleged offence was speeding (52 in a 40 mph limit). The initial police notice and all subsequent correspondence unfortunately went to a prior address.

Regrettably, the V5C logbook was the only thing that didn't update when I moved. The reason is that I simply did not know/appreciate that I had to inform DVLA twice - I notified them in regard to my driving licence, which has my current address, but did not know about the separate form required for V5C update. Essentially, an unfortunate administrative oversight/gap in my knowledge. I have now updated it! When we moved over two years ago we had a redirection service initially and thereafter have maintained an open channel of communication with the new owners in order that we could be notified if any mail inadvertently went there. I have been in touch with them since finding all this out and they have been really apologetic but essentially my letters were not noticed and then shoved away into a drawer and forgotten about. They have offered to provide a statement of truth in this regard.

Had I received the initial notice I would have taken the opportunity to settle the matter with a fixed penalty notice, 3 points and £100 fine. However, I did not get that opportunity. I have then be convicted of only the MS90 with 6 points and £1000 fine and an order for attachment of earnings has been put in place. I have been looking into my options and I understand that I need to make a statutory declaration (I have already started filling in the online form). My main questions are as follows:

1. Even though I have only been convicted of one charge there are still two charges against me as per the statement of facts the SJS sent me. When filling in the stat Dec form and it asks me about my pleas, do I need to plead to both charges? I'm assuming I do.

2. I have done some reading and taken some advice. It has been suggested to me that this is quite common and that the court will hear the circumstances and drop the failure to furnish charge if I offer to plead guilty to the initial speeding offence. However, I have seen conflicting advice on whether this would need to be achieved by pleading not guilty to both and putting in a caveat that I would plead guilty to the speeding if the other charge is dropped. Otherwise my plan is to plead guilty to speeding and not guilty to MS90 - is this sensible? Is it likely to succeed? (My preference is to do whatever is most likely to be agreed by the court).

3. Can I manage this on my own, without a solicitor?

4. Is it possible for this to ever go back to being a fixed penalty notice - hard reset/rewind type scenario where they just send out the initial correspondence again but to my current address and go from there.

Many thanks in advance.

Different areas deal with this differently.

Some will automatically drop the s. 172 if you simply plead guilty to the speeding. Others will convict you oi speeding and then continue to prosecute you for the s. 172 offence.

Or you could do what we recommend.

5. No need.

6. You don't need a reason and your offer will explain the situation.

7. No need.

8. No.

Simply ensure you plead not guilty to both charges and that you will offer to plead guilty to speeding only on the condition the other charge is dropped.

Interesting. So no need to give context for the failure to give ID or indeed to give a reason for not knowing about my case? Thanks a lot.

You’re making a statutory declaration that has to be accepted (if made in time). If you lie, you go to prison.

Making your SD normally needs to be done in person. However, I believe some courts are now undertaking them remotely.

However, it doesn't really matter. You seem to be getting a bit confused. There are two distinct steps in this process:

1. Firstly, you perform your SD. This has the effect of expunging the conviction you knew nothing about together with all the penalties that went with it (fine, surcharge, costs, endorsement and points). It is as if it never happened.

2. Then, you enter pleas to the two charges. It is at this point that you plead not guilty to both charges but go on to make your offer (to plead guilty to speeding if the other charge is dropped). Whilst you are doing that you can also ask if the court would consider fining you at the fixed penalty level. I have an idea this last request may fall on deaf ears, but it will do no harm to ask.

There is no need to over-think this too much. It is a procedure well known to all court users, especially magistrates and their legal advisors.

You haven't said but have you been asked to attend court to make your SD?

Good Morning. Me again. I am having some difficulty with the pleas process. To update you, I made my statutory declaration which was accepted. I then made my pleas, as advised, of not guilty to speeding and failing to ID but offered to plead guilty to speeding if the other charge was dropped. At the time, the person taking my stat dec and pleas sounded confident this would be accepted and it all seemed very routine which I was pleased about. Subsequently, however, things have hit a stumbling block. I asked for an update about my case this week and was informed that the case was heard earlier in the week and then adjourned for "clarification of plea".

The court admin officer has now asked me via email to clarify my plea and seems somewhat confused by the plea offer already made. I am being asked how I plead to speeding. They have said "What generally happens with such cases is, if you plead guilty to the speeding offence, the fail ID driver offence is then withdrawn and the court would sentence you on the speeding offence." And also "If you maintain that you are pleading not guilty to both offences, the court will fix a trial date and write to you with the date of trial for you to attend court." And finally "If you plead guilty to the speeding offence, the case will be dealt with in your absence and the court will write to you detailing the court’s decision."

My read on this is that for whatever reason the Magistrate who dealt with my case was unfamiliar with this kind of plea offer (unusual since the person I initially made the offer to was more au fait). It seems as though my best course of action is to tell them I plead guilty to speeding? I'm just a bit concerned about this, since it goes against the original plan and advice. Any pearls of wisdom on how to proceed?

Many thanks again.

 

 

Good evening All,

I just wanted to provide an update regarding the final outcome of my case. Happily, after clarification of my pleas (I stuck to my guns, and the advice given here, and pleaded not guilty to both charges but offered to plead guilty to speeding if the fail to provide ID charge was dropped) the court accepted my guilty plea to speeding and dropped the other charge. I have ended up with a much more routine three penalty points and a much smaller fine than previously issued (the court now owe me the difference). I had asked the court to consider sentencing me at FPN level but this was not done (it was always a longshot).

Thank you very much to all those who provided advice. Happy to see the back of this. Happy Friday and best wishes.