Statutory Declaration – S172 + speeding, NIP/S172 never received – chances of successful defence?

I would appreciate some views on my situation, particularly my chances of successfully defending an S172 failure-to-furnish charge.

I passed my UK driving test in October 2024 and had a completely clean licence.

In December 2025 I moved house. There was a significant problem with my new address: the letting agent rented the flat to us using an address which various organisations recognised as a business rather than residential property. For several months I corresponded with the letting agent, utilities, broadband provider, council/water etc. trying to establish whether the correct address should be 207A, 207, Flat 207A or Flat 207.

Because this remained unresolved, my driving licence/V5C were not updated until 27 March 2026, when I eventually used the address format that worked.

Unknown to me, my car had allegedly been recorded doing 36mph in a 30mph limit on 13 January 2026.

I did not receive the NIP/S172 request. I also subsequently did not receive the SJPN/court papers.

The old address was very close to my new home and I remained on good terms with my former landlord. We continued checking for post and he/family passed correspondence and deliveries to us. I have contemporaneous WhatsApp evidence of me asking him about post.

I knew absolutely nothing about the prosecution until 28 July 2026, when correspondence reached my current address informing me of the outcome/revocation. I discovered I had been convicted in my absence of failing to provide driver information, received 6 points and, being within my first two years of driving, my licence was revoked under the New Drivers Act.

I immediately contacted HMCTS and applied for a statutory declaration. I subsequently instructed specialist motoring solicitors. I have now sworn the statutory declaration and it has been submitted to the court.

My solicitors are proposing not-guilty pleas initially to both S172 and speeding and making representations to the CPS seeking discontinuance.

We have also identified potential witnesses/evidence.

My former landlord is willing to provide a statement confirming the arrangements for collecting/passing my post after I moved.

A neighbour on the same street is willing to provide a statement AND attend court. He lives at No. 2 Mount Street and personally experienced a parcel intended for No. 2 Mount Pleasant Street being delivered to his address. He personally took it to the correct property. The two similarly named streets are very close together.

My wife is also willing to provide evidence and attend court regarding postal/delivery issues within her knowledge.

I also have extensive contemporaneous documentation showing the difficulties with registering my new residential address and my repeated attempts to get the letting agent to resolve it.

The proposed strategy is essentially:

Plead NG initially and make representations seeking discontinuance of both offences.
If that fails, make further representations seeking withdrawal of the S172 in return for a guilty plea to the underlying speeding (3 points).
If both approaches fail, reassess the prosecution evidence before deciding whether to proceed to trial on the S172 defence.

My solicitors have explained that the S172 defence would focus on rebutting the presumption of service/not being reasonably practicable to respond because I genuinely never received the request. They are separately considering the 14-day NIP issue regarding the speeding allegation.

I accept that my V5C was not updated until March, which is obviously an adverse factor. However, the delay was connected to the documented new-address problem, and importantly I had arrangements in place for post still going to my previous address.

I am not looking to avoid responsibility for the actual 36/30 speeding if that is ultimately what I have to accept. My main concern is being convicted of failing to identify the driver when I genuinely never received the S172 request or knew that I was being asked to provide the information.

For those experienced with S172/non-receipt cases:

How strong/weak does this defence appear?

How significant is the fact that the V5C was outdated, notwithstanding the postal arrangements and evidence explaining the address problem?

Does the independent evidence of confusion between Mount Street/Mount Pleasant Street materially assist in rebutting presumed service?

And does the staged strategy of first seeking discontinuance of both, while potentially falling back to speeding-only if the CPS agrees, seem sensible?

I appreciate nobody can predict what the CPS/court will ultimately decide. I am mainly interested in how people experienced with these cases would assess the strengths, weaknesses and practical risks

You've instructed specialist solicitors - what more can we add?

However, the '14 day issue' (whatever that is) is irrelevant with a s172 in play.

Personally, the plea bargain (offering to plead guilty to the speeding on the basis they drop the s172) could have been done yourself without any third party assistance.

Going to trial on the s172 issue carries risk.  (For which the underlying offence drops away - even if it was 'late')

Your specialist motoring solicitor should surely know that the police have no evidence that you were driving and so the speeding prosecution cannot succeed. There is no need to prepare any defence to it.

You are essentially going to ask the court to accept that you didn’t change the address on your V5C because of the confusion with the address. Then, even though you had what seems to be reasonable access to the post at your old address, nothing arrived there (in which case the first part of your defence seems irrelevant).

I don’t share your solicitor’s optimism that the prosecution will discontinue the s172 charge. The issue with the new address is a red herring. The police sent the documents to your old address, and you are arguing that they did not arrive – even though you were not living there at the time they were sent.

I believe the prosecution will want your evidence tested in court.

You have quite a bit of evidence that the letter did not arrive. However, if I was in your position (bearing in mind the revocation issue) I might be inclined to offer to plead guilty to speeding on the understanding that the s172 charge is dropped. A guaranteed 3 points instead of a possible six (with the implications a s172 endorsement carries for all drivers) is usually enough to swing it. Facing revocation makes that even greater value.

Presumably the landlord will not be able to state categorically that no NIP was delivered addressed to you. Would he be able to state categorically that all post addressed to you was passed to you? If not, I would be very surprised if a bench found as fact that it was not served.

Drop the expensive solicitor, I think they are leading you up the path with the getting a discontinuance of both charges. Your best outcome is to offer to plead guilty to the speeding offence IF the S.172 charge is dropped. From what we hear, most courts are aware of this process and usually accept it at the time of entering a plea after the Stat.Dec is accepted. However if not, request a full court hearing and speak to the prosecutor on the day.

You can do this yourself without the cash outlay.   

I assume for certain you know you were dual charged for both offences?

...on the basis the OP was driving, it would be more complicated if they knew they weren't.