Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi there
Thank you for anyone taking the time to read and any responses. I’ll keep it as brief as possible.
Received a further steps notice in April which by the time I got it was over 10 days from the date of the notice. No mention of offence but £1,024 fine.
Paid fine to ensure no further action.
Rang HMCTS and found out the original offence was for 34mph in a 20 zone, August 2024.
Checked driving licence and I now have 6 points for failing to identify driver.
Have received info from the court for the original speeding offence - Single justice procedure notice and a witness statement.
Both dated November. I haven’t received the original NIP or photo evidence - I need to contact the police if I want those.
Anyway, the reason for me not receiving anything before the FSN was because I recently got divorced, had sold the family home quite a while ago, had a breakdown, lost my job. Still not back to work as I’m still suffering from stress and anxiety (not in receipt of any benefits). I had neglected to change the V5 to my new address. I’ve moved 3 times in the past 18 months since the house was sold but v5 was still registered at the family home. My life’s been in disarray. I know this isn’t an excuse but more as to whether I should include this information on the statutory declaration? Or will a brief ‘I neglected to change my address’ suffice and then explain further at court? I’m concerned I’ll screw the form up. I’ve got to get it in in the next couple of weeks to make the 21 day deadline from when I found out.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to best/worst case scenario in court?
I’ve had a clean licence for many years (I’m 52).
Hope this makes sense and thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Hi Richard
So the SJPN is for speeding only.
The further steps letter which is the only correspondence I’ve receives related to the fine (and points) for the FTF although there’s no specific information presumably because this is a chasing letter for non payment.
Hope this helps.
Thanks again.
Rich

Hi Newjudge and thanks for the response. Apologies for the follow up.
So the SD is for the FTP only and I need to get the original case number for this offence to put on the form? I only have the case number of the speeding offence and an account number off the Further steps notice which is what I used to pay the FTP fine.
The form asks to briefly explain how I found out (about the FTP not the speeding offence, I presume). So I should just say ‘received further steps notice at new address’?
Once I attend court, I offer to plead guilty to the speeding on the proviso the FTP is expunged?
Sorry if I’m asking daft questions.
I would engage a solicitor to aid but have been quoted quite a bit and my circumstances don’t quite allow such an outlay at the moment.
Thanks again for any further advice.
Rich

Thank you so much. I can breathe a small sigh of relief. I’ll still anticipate up to six points and a large fine. And maybe claim back the original fine…I imagine I’m being a bit naive on that one!
Thanks again for your time and assistance.
Rich

Apologies if I've missed it, but has the OP answered the second part of the question put by @RichardW as to whether he was the driver for the speeding charge?

I don't think you've got to the bottom of this yet... Appears to me that there are 2 offences in play - the original for which you were convicted of FTF in your absence, and a second for which you have a SJPN - although how this comes to be in your name when you never received, or responded to, an NIP is a mystery. Could someone else have returned it 'on your behalf'?

There's only a point doing a SD for the FTF if you can get something out of it. If you were dual charged and you were the driver then you might be able to do the deal and get a speeding conviction only, which might reduce points and the fine and avoid the MS90 endorsement code. If you weren't on either count then you will get reconvicted (absent a defence which you don't appear to have), and the only benefit will be a reduction in the fine for the guilty plea - and if your earnings are higher than the amount assumed the fine might go up.

You need to try and get hold of the SJPN and witness statement for the FTF and try and figure out if it relates to a separate offence to the speeding one you have. What does the witness statement you mentioned above say?

I think some posters are getting confused here. What you should have had is a SJPN dual charged with speeding and FTP. What you are unlikely to have had is a SJPN for FTP followed by a second SJPN for the speeding charge. There is currently only one conviction to deal with and no outstanding offences. Once the stat dec is done there will be two offences.

The statement from the camera operator will be there only to refer to the original offence.

Your licence online should show the one conviction code, MS90 for failure to provide driver details.

Edit. There could be a second charge relating to an entirely separate occasion of course. But that isn't what we appear to have here. 

I’ll go back to hMCTS and ask for the case number for the FTF and see if I can get the papers for that which may show dual offences?
There aren’t any other outstanding offences I’m aware of (I went to my local police station last week and although they couldn’t give me any paperwork the officer said he’d checked all my details and there wasn’t anything else he could see) and I have 6 points, MS90 applied recently