Free Traffic Legal Advice

So this evening, I came back from work to a large white letter from the Fixed Pentalty Unit stating I was caught speeding in a 30mph area from back in June of this year.

I'm not necessarily disputing I was speeding as I may have done, I don't know, because this is the first I've heard of it. However, Northumbria Police state they've sent me letters requesting who was the driver and I've never received anything until today on this. I've not moved house during the time-frame covered by the document I've received to now. So, I'm at a loss as to how I've not received up to two letters asking for further info from me.

Also, I don't know if this is standard but there is no evidence other than a witness statement from someone in Northumbria Police about sending me letters.

Not sure what to do on this as now they are looking to do me for speeding and failing to identify the driver. Which I would've done if I'd actually received the letters.

My V5C is up to date, I just checked. I moved house back in Dec 2024 but have had a Royal Mail Redirection Order set up so all stray mail gets redirected to my new house. I should've received the original NIP but I didn't, so I don't have the ref. number from it, so I can't even check on the police website for the evidence they hold for the speeding.

I am the only driver of my vehicle. No one else has access... But I also don't have access to any footage or images of the alleged offense to see if it was indeed my vehicle or someone spoofing my plates.

I've gone part way through the online.plea website to see if the URN number provided is genuine and it seems to be.

I have read on a couple of posts on this forum that pleading not guilty and explaining I am willing to change my plea to the speeding to guilty if they drop the failure to ID the driver charge works more often than not. Is that true?

I probably was caught speeding in the grand scheme of things, I will say fair play to that one. I likely have no choice but to plead guilty to that part in the finish, but I'd rather not be done for something I didn't even know about until about an hour ago if I can at all help it.

So unless anyone has a better idea I'm going to initially plead not guilty to both charges and then when it asks for the reasons I am intending to write the following:

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Offense 1: The Speeding
I am willing to plead guilty to this offense if the charge for the second offense of failing to give information is dropped. I outline the reasons for this more fully in my reply to the second offense. Please see below:

Offense 2: Failure to ID driver
I have not received any correspondence regarding the speeding offense until today 24/12/2025 with the reciept of the SJPN with case No.: ###########. My V5C is up to date with my current address, and though I moved house in Dec of 2024 I have had a Royal Mail Redirection Order set up to receive any correspondence that may mistakenly be sent to the old address. Therefore I have not seen any of the evidence provided in the original NIP as I never received the original NIP. If I had done, I would've complied with the request to identify the driver of the vehicle at the time of the original offense without delay.
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So any advice would be good right about now, thanks.

Statistically (because 86% of all statistics are simply made up), when a poster tells us that they received an SJPN out of the blue, with no NIP or reminder received, despite being the RK, with no apparent history of postal issues, the possible explanations, in order of likelihood are as follows-

The OP was 'mistaken' either about the notices not being delivered or being the RK at the material time,
the FPSU c*cked up, or
Postman Pat stole both the NIP and the reminder to tear up to make some bedding for Jess, but had finished before the SJPN was sent.

Historically, there has been much anecdotal evidence to suggest that redirects are often not effective for NIPs (or at all).
The obvious gap in the story is that you presumably moved house around December 2024, updated the address on your V5C at some unspecified point between December 2024 and December 2025, and the alleged speeding offence was most likely early to mid June 2025 based on the timing of the SJPN.

The date the current V5C was issued should be printed on the V5C at the bottom of page 2, after the DocRefNo. You can also check by doing a vehicle check against the VRM on the DVLA's website (if the V5C is not to hand). From previous experience, we will remain skeptical of any claim to be the RK from anyone who cannot lay their hands on the V5C.

If the V5C was not updated before the offence, that does not help you form a viable defence, but it does take the mystery out of the equation.

Does the witness statement state what address the NIP and reminder were sent to? Despite telling us that no other evidence was provided (than the witness statement), was a copy of the NIP included (and if so, was it addressed to your current address)?

On the assumption that no viable defence sneaks down the chimney tonight, the plea deal is commonplace, and to the best of our knowledge has only failed when the accused either unconditionally plead guilty in the hope that the s. 172 charge would vanish of its own accord (in some cases it is automatically dropped, but in others it hasn't been), or went out of his way to tell the prosecutor what was what.

Some courts will deal with a plea deal on the papers, and others will refer it to a full court hearing. However, if the court is paying attention, it should not accept a guilty plea if a defence [to that charge] is disclosed. Your defence to the s. 172 charge (which they invite you to indicate, but at this stage you are under no obligation to do) discloses a defence to the speeding charge.

The V5C was updated on 14/12/2024, 2 weeks after I moved. Both the Document and the DVLA website confirm this.

The witness statement states my correct, current address was used to send correspondence. No copy of the NIP is present in the pack I got.