Free Traffic Legal Advice

I have had a very similar situation to the one described. I was caught on camera speeding in Huddersfield area 36mph in a 30mph zone on 20th August 2024. I received the S172, acknowledged I was the driver and gave drivers licence details at that juncture.

I then received a conditional offer of £100 on 7th September 2024 and paid this online. I also sent an email to West Yorkshire Police Camera Unit provided explaining that I had paid this but had not been given the opportunity to supply my drivers licence details along with payment so was backing this up with the email.

I then received a letter in the post asking me to send the drivers licence details by post to the Fixed Penalty Office, and a reminder on 27th November 2024. I sent this off but the letter bounced back after Christmas because unfortunately the stamp was out of date (an administrative error).

The next I hear from West Yorkshire Police was a Single Justice Procedure Notice on 27th Jan 2025. I pleaded guilty to the speeding charge online but there was little to no explanation within the pack that I needed to explain my case in terms of the delay in provision of (posted) drivers licence details.

On 6th Feb 2025 I receive a letter stating the result of the court case being a total payment of £411 (£215 fine, £110 costs and £86 victims surcharge).

I have subsequently been in touch with the Magistrates Court as below:

'Dear Huddersfield Magistrates Court,

I am writing to respectfully appeal against the result of a court case on 6th February 2025 brought against me by West Yorkshire Police for a speeding offence on 20th August 2024.

I have been asked to pay a total of £411.00 by the court after paying an initial Conditional Offer of £100 (which I note has been paid back into my bank account on 10th February 2025).

My statement of events which I hope you will consider favourably:

I responded immediately to the Fixed Penalty Notice I received from West Yorkshire Police on 23rd August 2024 with admission that I was the driver and provided my drivers licence details. I then paid the conditional offer of £100 via the direct.gov.uk website on 3rd September 2024 and followed this up with the email below to the West Yorkshire Camera Unit with my drivers licence details.

After receiving the email response from Sandra at the Camera Unit and a reminder by post on 27th November 2024, I completed form Part 2 "Submission of drivers licence details" and sent this by post to the Regional Fixed Penalty Office for point endorsement. Unfortunately, this letter was bounced back to me in the post after the Christmas and New Year period because of a problem with the stamp.

On 27th January 2025 I received the Single Justice Procedure in which I pleaded guilty to the speeding offence but did not provide any other details  in Section 4.2 because  I did not understand that the reason for my case being escalated to court was non-receipt of my drivers licence details in the post as opposed to electronically which I provided on 3rd September 2024 and also on 23rd August 2024.

I hope you will consider the circumstances I have described above as reasonable attempts to follow due process and kindly review the court order for me to pay £411 (over four times the conditional offer).

Yours sincerely,
Mr Thomas Gilberthorpe'

I received the following response:

'Hello,
 
Please see appeal booklet attached, we do suggest seeking independent legal advise before taking this step. Furthermore please note that due to your guilty plea you will be appealing the sentence, not the conviction and sentence.
 
Kind Regards,
M.J.Hanley
Adminstration Officer
 
| HMCTS | Bradford Magistrates' Court|

Any advice on my next steps. Clearly I want to challenge this and make the case for paying the original Fixed Penalty of £100 only. I have noted your suggestions New Judge on wording for joseph445 plea but clearly I am further down the line now with this so any help appreciated. 

Many thanks.

Split from the following thread: Speeding + Failed to give identification of the vehicle/rider, in line with our House rules:

2. Do not hijack another person's thread in order to post your own problem. Start your own.

When you were sentenced the court could have considered sentencing you at the fixed penalty level. They have guidance to do this where they think it is appropriate. Your circumstances, on the face of it, seem appropriate at least for that consideration to be made (even though ultimately your error with the stamp caused the police to prosecute you). But if you did not explain the circumstances to them, they were unaware.

You need to contact the court and request that they consider reopening your case under s142 of the Magistrates Court Act. This says they have the power to do this where they believe it is in the interests of justice to do so.

You will almost certainly meet some resistance with that request. Importantly, do not mention the word “appeal”. Your request will firstly be seen by admin staff and it seems that whenever they see that word, they bump the request back with advice that the only route of appeal is to the Crown Court. This is perfectly true, but you don’t want to appeal – you want your case reopened.

You must persevere with this. Unless it is manifestly ridiculous, whether or not to reopen a case is a judicial decision that must be taken by the court, not an administrative one that can be taken by administrative staff.

If you do manage to get your case reopened you will almost certainly have to attend court. There you can explain the difficulties that meant you did not comply with the requirements of the fixed penalty offer, and ask the court to consider sentencing you at the FP level.