My wife has been sent a letter from the DVLA, it was saying she needed to send her licence off as she has been found guilty in her absense of an offence and it needed endorsing with the points.
She phoned DVLA and asked why as she didn’t know what it was for. All they could tell her was it’s 6 points and a £600 fine, the address the fine and court summons was sent to and that it was for speeding. She pointed out that she had never received a fine or court summons (sent to old address), but did receive the letter from the DVLA asking to send her licence (sent to new address).
She has sent her licence off and the code on it is for failure to give information on who was driving (because a fine was never received) date of the offence is showing 7th of May.
We moved this year to Spalding from Nottingham, on 25th of March, my wife updated her licence straight away and the V5 for the car that was caught speeding at the same time and the details were updated on the 6th April on DVLA systems.
She is back in court this week to try to plead her case, in short her arguement is that she updated her information on the 6th of April, the offence was committed on the 7th of May, DVLA sent the information to the wrong address and made no attempt to contact her at our new address.
What do you think her chances are, she hasn’t got a solicitor as she feels she has done nothing wrong.
Any advice muchly apriciated.
PS It could have been me driving when the speeding offence happened but we don’t even know when or where it happened.
I would go to a solicitor for advice, most will give you 30 mins free & they do know their stuff. Sounds to me like you have a case, you are entitled to all information regarding the incident anyway, but to get it across correctly you do need legal help.
I found the following which may be of use (in this case it’s a penalty charge but it’s the same procedure):
When filing a Statutory Declaration, there are only three grounds upon which the declaration can be based. These highlight the procedures, the local authority have failed to carry out prior to registering the penalty charge. They are:
You have not received the notice to owner, penalty charge notice or enforcement notice
You made representations to the Local Authority but you did not receive a rejection notice; and
You made an appeal to the Parking/Traffic Adjudicator (following the rejection, by the Local Authority, of your representation) and you received no response.
Where can I get my Statutory Declaration form sworn?
The Statutory Declaration must be sworn before any of the following before it can be accepted by the TEC:
An Officer appointed by the Judge to take affidavits - these staff can be found at a local county court and do not charge a fee
A Justice of the Peace at any Magistrates Court. A fee may be payable and you should contact your Local magistrates court for further information
A Solicitor or Commissioner for Oaths. A fee may be payable and you should contact any solicitors office for details of the fee charged.
Lee1976:
I found the following which may be of use (in this case it’s a penalty charge but it’s the same procedure):
When filing a Statutory Declaration, there are only three grounds upon which the declaration can be based. These highlight the procedures, the local authority have failed to carry out prior to registering the penalty charge. They are:
You have not received the notice to owner, penalty charge notice or enforcement notice
You made representations to the Local Authority but you did not receive a rejection notice; and
You made an appeal to the Parking/Traffic Adjudicator (following the rejection, by the Local Authority, of your representation) and you received no response.
Where can I get my Statutory Declaration form sworn?
The Statutory Declaration must be sworn before any of the following before it can be accepted by the TEC:
An Officer appointed by the Judge to take affidavits - these staff can be found at a local county court and do not charge a fee
A Justice of the Peace at any Magistrates Court. A fee may be payable and you should contact your Local magistrates court for further information
A Solicitor or Commissioner for Oaths. A fee may be payable and you should contact any solicitors office for details of the fee charged.
That is what she is in court for I couldn’t remember the correct terminology, so you think a solicitor is the way to go then… more expense lol
It’s the only way I’m afraid. It’s not possible to have a conviction overturned without going through the courts. A Statutory Declaration is a simple process but of course there are fees involved, either through a solicitor or directly at the court.
yeah the people on pepipoo put me in touch with a solicitor that specialises in traffic offences and within 20 mins of talking to him and him phoneing dvla up I had all my charges dropped due to insufficient evidence ? now im not saying the same will happen to you but these guys know their stuff.
yeah the people on pepipoo put me in touch with a solicitor that specialises in traffic offences and within 20 mins of talking to him and him phoneing dvla up I had all my charges dropped due to insufficient evidence ? now im not saying the same will happen to you but these guys know their stuff.
Having charges dropped is very different to overturning a conviction. By all means ring them for advice but the OP’s wife has already been found guilty so only a magistrate can overturn it.
Did or have you actually received an NIP for the speeding offence?
No but DVLA say they sent it to our old address, first we heared about it was a letter from DVLA wanting to endorse her licence AFTER being found guilty in her absense at a court hearing she knew nothing about.
Did or have you actually received an NIP for the speeding offence?
No but DVLA say they sent it to our old address, first we heared about it was a letter from DVLA wanting to endorse her licence AFTER being found guilty in her absense at a court hearing she knew nothing about.
DVLA do not send out NIPs or court summons.
Here’s how it works…
Car gets flashed by a speed camera in Kent for example
The Traffic Process Section in Kent Police send out a NIP
If they do not get a reply they will then issue a court summons with details of the court and the date
Court date comes and goes and your wife gets found guilty in her absence
Court informs Kent Police and DVLA of the outcome of the case i.e. 6 points and £600
DVLA update their records and send letter requesting return of licence
My guess is that DVLA records were right all along and the fault lies with the Police force / enforcement agency covering the area where the offence was committed. I have seen it many times before. Police / Enforcement agencies have a link into the DVLA database which is not strictly a live link, at best it’s a daily download. However, occasionally some records can become corrupted during the download process and do not update properly at the Police force end. I’m only guessing that this is what happened but as I say I’ve seen this scenario many times before.
You need to apply for permission for appeal. You do this at a magistraites court.
Then when you have been granted permission to appeal you will go to a crown court, in my case the old bailey.
I was in front of a judge and 2 magistraites.
I explained my case and had conviction quashed.
Thats a boiled down version.
Go to local magistraites court and talk to the reception, they are very helpful.
And keep all paperwork and make a note of everything.
Thought I would update you all on this, the wife went to court last thursday and the conviction for failure to notify was revoked along with the £600 fine and the 6 points, apparently we should expect Lincs police to send the NIP to our new address now, although nothing has come yet.
All she did was give her name and address, the magistrate asked her to repeat her address and then overturned it as it “is an obvious case of wrong address”.
Well chuffed with the result and common sense prevailed.
Hiya did your wife speed on the day in question■■? 6 points and £600 must have been quite serious.
their was a case nr Northampton where a farmer was doing 100mph on his tractor. his plates had been
cloaned.he turned up in court asking how fast they thought the tractor would go.
a pal of mine was in trouble with sheriff in Scotland for speeding 103mph, they sent his summonds to
the wrong house, 3 the cresent when it was 3 the avenue(made up address) they arested my mate in the street
slapped him in jail for 4 days. he tried to use the 4 days as a leaverage against a ban but still got a 30 day ban.
he got no answer for the 4 days in jail.
John
Something similar happened to me bout 9years ago, never got done for it because the police took more than 6months from the date of the offence to issue the summons to the correct address!!
Hi John, it wasn’t 6 points and £600 fine for speeding, that wasnfor ‘failure to notify’ (who the driver was) the original offence was for an sp30, 3points and £60 fine, the NIP was sent in (their) error to my old address.
It could have been me or my wife driving as we don’t know where, when or what exact speed we were caught at.
and pay it back at a £1 a week 