Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hello everyone,

My first post and grateful for any advice, and appreciate giving up your time to look at my post. I'll try and outline this in chronological order. This is on behalf of my father who is 74yo and already has 3 points on his license before the incident.

17/2/25 - Caught speeding by static fixed camera doing 35mph on a 30mph road.

26/2/25 - Received NIP letter from Met Police and responded with personal details using web link provided.

12/3/25 - Received offer letter of NDORS diversionary course. My father rejected this offer by not responding. His stated preference was to pay the future fixed fine reduced offer as indicated in the letter.

2/5/25 - My father went abroad.

20/6/25 - Letter of Conditional offer of Fixed Penalty arrives at my fathers residential property. Was not opened.

2/8/25 - My father returns to UK from abroad. Opens his letters.

3/8/25 - My father tries to pay the fixed penalty using the web link provided but throws an error. Suspect it is because 28 days have lapsed and the offer was withdrawn as said in letter. My father sends an email to Met Police to argue mitigating circumstance (he was abroad) when letter of fixed penalty arrived and asking if offer can be reopened so he can pay.

4/8/25 - Met Police respond to email by saying offer was withdrawn due to 28 days and SJP notice will be sent.

5/8/25 - Received letter of SJP notice.


Little bit annoyed that in this day and age that correspondence by the Met is all done by paper letters, even though they had his number and email address which he can access whilst abroad. But anyway, should i advise my father to plead guilty, given he accepts the speeding? However, is there any way to argue for leniency on the judgement based on his mitigating circumstance (being abroad) and doing everything he can when he returned to UK. What is the likely fine and license points additions for guilty or non-guilty pleads?

He has no realistic option but to plead guilty.

There is no way the police would have revived their offer of a fixed penalty almost five months after the offence. They must allow the recipient of the offer 28 days to accept it and they must take court proceedings (the only alternative left to them if the FP is declined or ignored) within six months of the offence.

Magistrates have guidance which suggests that in certain circumstances they should impose a sentence at the level equivalent to the fixed penalty:

“Where a penalty notice could not be offered or taken up for reasons unconnected with the offence itself, such as administrative difficulties outside the control of the offender, the starting point should be a fine equivalent to the amount of the penalty and no order of costs should be imposed. The offender should not be disadvantaged by the unavailability of the penalty notice in these circumstances.”

Of course the reasons for your father being unable to accept the fixed penalty were entirely of his own making. All he can do is to explain the circumstances (using the “mitigation” section of the SJ response) and ask if the court would be prepared to follow the above guidance.

He should not mention that he is as annoyed as you are because the police did not bother to try to contact him other than by their usual methods. They don’t and that’s that. A kindly Single Justice may take pity with his plight but at the end of the day he went abroad for three months knowing that this matter was still outstanding and did not make any arrangements to have it handled in his absence.

If the court is not on his side, he will be sentenced in accordance with the normal guidelines. These suggest a fine of half a week’s net income (reduced by a third for his guilty plea), a surcharge of 40% of that fine, prosecution costs of around £90 and three points.

Thank you for the reply. That was very useful and concise.

You suggest adding the guidance text into the section of the SJ response. Is this from the 'General guideline: overarching principles' from the Sentencing Council? Just want to make sure i quote correctly.

I am also thinking of adding the reason for my fathers absence abroad, which is purely medical, as he was seeking treatment abroad to deal with an issue he couldn't wait for in the UK. Not sure whether that could be relevant.

On a separate note, will keep the response factual and avoid personal views. Though i also wish my father had heeded some advice earlier, but i guess he is stuck in his old ways at that age.

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You suggest adding the guidance text into the section of the SJ response.

Not really.

There's no need to quote the guidance to the magistrate. They will be aware of it. Simply ask if consideration could be given to sentencing at the FP level.

I think I've read a magistrate on another motoring offence forum display apparent ignorance of that guidance.  Or at least it wasn't included in the advice given to the author of the thread when it seemed eminently applicable to me.

I'd always take a belt and braces approach...