yurt:
Ive received a letter from Lothian and Borders Police saying i was doing 53 on the A1. It doesnt say what i will get. the letter worries me it says i can get upto 12 points, over six points and i am out of a job. Anyone had one of these and got an idea of what happens?
The NIP is just notifying you that the authorities intend to bring a prosecution to the driver and will ask you to confirm the ID of the driver at the stated time. The next communication will be the actual prosecution and usually a choice of ways in which you can plead.
I’m not familiar with the A1 that far up but would guess that to get a NIP at 53mph the speed limit, which could be a vehicle specific limit, would be 40mph. I’m fairly certain that puts you outside of the margin for a speed awareness course so your best option, if offered, would be the offer of a fixed penalty. That would mean 3 points and a £60 fine. If you are not offered a fixed penalty then it’s time to dust off the suit because you will be getting an invite to the local magistrates at some point. If it gets to this its time to brush up on the arse kissing because in my experience that’s what a magistrate will want to see.
All that blurb about more points and a higher fine if you challenge is basically to deter you from trying because they want you to roll over to the fixed penalty which is loads cheaper for them. Bear in mind though that if you challenge and are unsuccessful then you it will cost you more and you run the risk of getting awarded more penalty points. Also bear in mind that you’ve got to have plenty of fire power behind you to beat a certified camera. All that BS about calibration is just that and you can be sure in 99% of cases that if you challenge on those grounds things will be water tight.
At this stage it’s all about damage limitation and if you actually receive the prosecution letter then in your case I think that is the fixed penalty.
Cheers
Neilf