I'll be as concise as I can.
Most posters seem to conflate being precise with brevity. Being truly concise is an under-rated art form. Brevity is vastly over-rated.
Should I change my plea ? Should I leave it and pray ? I'm stressed and worried and need advice (I know I should have asked first I just thought it was better to throw myself at their mercy and be as quick as possible
As you explained further up in your post, not changing your plea would be expected to result in losing your job - which we have established would be a bad thing.
Sentencing for motoring offences is very prescriptive - often referred to (mostly by me) as "paint by numbers". Viable mitigation, such as to lessen the sentence, is exceptionally rare, and more likely than not to exacerbate the situation. Throwing yourself on the court's mercy is all but a meaningless concept - even more so if you entered a straight guilty plea to the (presumed) SJPN, rather than requesting a court hearing. Which we don't know because brevity.
If both guilty pleas are accepted, you will have 9 points on your licence, rather than the 6 or 3 that you would otherwise get. The speeding charge has no legs without evidence that you were the driver, although it is generally offered as a nicety - as if it was an alternative charge - hence the plea deal.
It is possible that the SJ will accept the speeding plea, and drop the s. 172 charge. However, IMHO it is more likely that he would simply rubber stamp both pleas and give you 9 shiny points. And the fines, etc.
It is also possible that the SJ will treat your pleas an equivocal and reject them - depending both on whether your "mitigation" appears to disclose a defence, and how diligent he is being.
We're perfectly happy to see how it plays out - we're not the ones who are facing having their licence revoked and losing their job after starting to get back on their feet.
TL;DR - bloody stupid question - yes,
if you can you should get your pleas vacated.
When the SJP first started, your plea would not be processed until some time after the (IIRC) 21 days to enter a plea had expired. More recently. in some areas at least, they appear to be processed far more quickly. Obviously, we don't know when your SJPN was sent, how it found you, when you entered you plea, how you entered your plea, or when you had to enter your plea by. Because brevity (which is over-rated).
That said, it has little bearing on the advice we would be able to give - at best it would inform our confidence as to whether or not you are too late to be able to vacate your pleas.
My issue is I was homeless at the time (literally made homeless a week before the incident) and was living out of my car up untill April of this year. As such I never received the speeding ticket and the first I have been made aware of this is a court letter asking me to enter a plee for the speeding offence as well as failing to name driver.
You may or may not have a defence to the s. 172 charge - which may or may not be relevant for 2 separate reasons.
If your pleas are entered and you are convicted, that is to all intents and purposes the end of the matter.
If you are able to vacate your pleas, you might prefer to do a deal with the prosecution, than to try to defend the s. 172 charge.
There is a statutory defence to the s. 172 charge if you can show that it was not reasonably practicable to provide the relevant information. However, case law (
Whiteside) provides that merely not being aware of the requirement does not in and of itself make out the defence - the court would have to consider whether it was reasonably practicable to ensure that any such notice was brought to your attention. In your case, the obvious question would seem to be whether or not you could (or strictly speaking, whether it would have been reasonably practicable to) have updated the address on the V5C to somewhere that you could receive mail - perhaps and friend or relative's house.
