We Reluctantly Admitted The Offence

Question:

A speeding offence which happened July last year has been winding me up for some time.

A speeding fine was posted through the door, the incident happened when we were on holiday south of the UK. We had to take the information as face value as the incident was too far away to investigate whether the road for its legitimate speed limit, road layout etc. once we returned home.

As it stood, my wife and I could not remember exactly who was driving on the day of offence as we rotated on driving duties while touring the area.
As such, we requested photographic evidence which proved useless because it was back of the car.

I then phoned the speeding company to determine how we find out the driver of the offence, to which I was told the owner of the car must always know who the driver is at all times regardless and could penalise the both of us. The fear of 6 points and £1000 plus extra court costs scared the both of us so one of us took the flak, admitted the offence and got 3 points and £60.

The first question is would we have had a case to argue in court in the first place to determine the driver and second question is it still possible to appeal to look further into it?

Many thanks

Dominic Says:

If you had stood your ground and stated that you could not name the driver then you would have been summonsed to court for failing to name the driver and you would have been at risk of 6 points and a hefty fine.

You would then have had a statutory defence to the allegation based on s.172(4) RTA 1988. This states that if you can show on the balance of probabilities that you used reasonable diligence to figure out who was driving at the time of the alleged offence the you must be found not guilty.

If you are a man of good character (which I assume you are) then the court is obliged to give extra weight to what you say.

If you named the driver (reluctantly and without certainty) then the matter would have been dealt with by way of a fixed penalty. There is no way to challenge the fixed penalty. It’s not like a court hearing where you can appeal the conviction.

I am sorry but it is too late to do anything about this matter now.

I defend over 95% of fail to name the driver charges and I would have been able to help you at the time but I am afraid that its now too late.

Keep my details if you have any questions in the future and come to me first before accepting anything,