Just received a summons today to appear in court over speeding. An added bonus is that apparently i have to appear in person and cant plead by post. Nice of them since Im not local. Anyway ive not received one of these before and was wondering if they had messed up in some was, as it appears they have included a number plate in the summons, and if they have its not mine.

"DID DRIVE A MOTOR VEHICLE V318 HBM ON A MOTORWAY AT A SPEED EXCEEDING 70MPH"

If V318 HBM is a reference to the car im driving, ie number plate, have they messed up this in a big way? As this is not my number plate. In fact its nothing at all like my number plate.



********UPDATE*******

went to court yesterday. As previously mentioned 100.4 mph on a motorway and wrong registration on summons.


Went before magistrates and i said that wasnt my registration, prosecution stood up and admitted it was the police car that stopped me, magistrates started laughing. Prosecution asked to amend to my real registration which they read out, i was asked by magistrates if this was my car and i agreed, at this point they asked me if i wanted to plead innocent or guilty, i asked to quickly see the free brief, and was advised that i should plead guilty.

I reappear and plead quilty after saying i have a clean licence and out of charactor etc, they mumble a lot and decide to give me 6 points and a £100 fine plus £35 costs.

Doubtless I MAY have got off if i had a top brief, but i suppose id get a bill for circa £500 and theres always the possibility that id be in the same position or worse. It was said by the magistrates that they were being easy on me due to me pleading guilty and clean licence. I suppose that the prosecution having messed up with the registration may have helped matters

[Edited by scoobynutta555 - 8/8/2003 5:28:26 PM]

 

Ever owned the car with that plate?

If not, turn up, plead not guilty, get it thrown out.....

PS - Was it you and have they just messed up???

 

if thats not your plate then thats not your summons !

 

Looks like someones registered the vehicle to you... Get a decent legal team sorted then turn up at court and wait for it all to get thrown out and plod told off..

..ps dont admit to it on here even if it was you

 

have you recently changed the reg of your car?

sometimes a PNC check picks up previous registrations of vehicles that have been changed in last 6 months, sadly the old swansea computer is a tad slow slow sometimes

 

i changed my reg before i got pulled, but it was Y plate to a p1 private plate. The V reg on the summons bears no relation whatsoever to any car i own or at this address.

So is it possible that i turn up at court and they dismiss the case against me? If they make an error like this then I suppose the rest of the evidence against me is suspect, one cop on a stopwatch vascar, no tape.

 

erm..sorry to trouble you nutter but vascars have digital cameras these days, have done for about 4 years now, the film is downloaded at the end of every shift and action is taken where required...hence there being only a single copper in traffic cars on speeding duty alot of the time...good old technology

 

Not correct. The traffic cars may have a camera mounted on the dash, but this is not the case in every car.

[Edited by BuRR - 7/20/2003 4:14:56 PM]

 

ok, the latest. called a mate and he has found out some details about the car.

This is where it gets even more strange.

The car is a v6 vauxhall omega estate.

Guess which car the cop was driving

 

vascar or not, was a copper in traffic car, had stopwatch thing on the dash, time and distance between 2 points previously measured, he said was enough, and i heard since that is the case.

 

he wrote down his own reg #?

 

Fingers crossed for you mate!

 

just make sure you get good representation though.

Good luck

 

Remember it is not the police but the crown prosecution service which you need to deal with. Give them a phone call and tell them that you were not driving that car and don't know anything about it - they will drop the charges on the spot probably as they will not want the expense of going to court and knowing they will lose. Like any business they have a budget and targets to reach all the rest of it.

 

i'm confused doesn't take much but thats dated 7th march what happened to 14 days notice, have you recieved anything else before this.

Si

 

IIRC, 14 days for the Notice of Intended Prosecution is only relevant for cameras etc - i.e. where you weren't aware of being caught at the time. In this case, scoobynutta got pulled at the time (I assume, from posts above), so it counts as getting the NIP immediately. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong.

I'd think that a mistake on the summons might leave a loophole for a lawyer to exploit, but I'm no expert - suggest speak to a suitable lawyer and take their advice.

 

No expensive legal advice needed - this is an open and shut case. That bit of paper is a legal document. They are charging you with driving that particular vehicle at >70mph. You are either guilty or not guilty. You cannot be sort of guilty if it was in another car your honour!!

 

You could try the following..

1. Reply saying at you know of no such vehicle. State that vehicles in your name have the registration - such and such - and therefore you have no case to answer.

2. Wait for the response.

UB

 

I will try and answer this one as simply as possible for you.

Firstly, certainly in England and Wales, there has never been any requirement for there to be two officer corroborating speed offences, 1 traffic officers word is good enough even on an estimate as there is always the "Speed Reckless" route that can be taken which requires no evidence of actual speed what so ever, just an estimation, however in the majority of cases the speed is corroborated either by the vehicle speedometer, Vascar or other recognised speed enforcement equipment.

If at the time of the offence no verbal NIP is given, then a written NIP must be sent out to the last known address of the registered keeper within 14 days of the commision of the offence, and it does not just apply to Camera offences it applies to all speeding offences.

An NIP is basically a statement that says "You will be reported for consideration of the question of prosecuting you for the offence of!" and this covers about 7 - 8 different offences including dangerous cycling. If no verbal or written NIP is given, then a prosecution cannot take place, however if a verbal NIP has been given, then there is no requirement to follow it up with a written copy.

As far as the vehicle registration number is concerned, send a covering letter together with photocopies of the documentation you have received back to the CPS. Tell them that you do not own and never have owned such a vehicle or registration mark, and explain that you can prove it and even prove where you were on the day the alleged offence was commited.

The CPS should withdraw the summons and offer no evidence at court, however, if they persist, then go to Court in person explain the situation to the Magistrates and then ask for costs to be awarded against Police. This will cause an investigation to occur as every time costs are awarded against the Police service the **** tends to hit the fan

Hope this helps.

 

top for update

 

That sounds odd, I don't think they can just change the details there in court like that and do you for driving a different car. I would go to a local law firm who probably do a drop in surgery where they will have a quick look at something for about £10 and then ask them if you think you can get this overturned. Might be a problem that you have pleaded guilty though now. £100 is peanuts for doing over a ton so I reckon they knew they were in the wrong.

 

I asked the brief there and he said prosecution can ask to amend things like that at anytime. I think its a big gamble to get an adjournment and plead guilty if the bench think its just an admin error. If the stakes were higher i think i would have got a specific brief on the case, but first offence and just a 100 im pretty pleased at the outcome. I was expecting a 2 week ban and several hundred fine. I got the impression that because i pleaded quilty and not pushing the error they were leniant.

 

Just Plead not guilty if you plead guilty to driving the car on the documents you are purgering yourself which is an offence and you cannot be made to purger yourself.

You also cannot be made to plead guilty to the charge if details of the offence are altered after the fact.The police officer has no record of the registration of your vehicle at the time of the offence as he wrote his own registration down.To than find out that he has got it all wrong and then for details of an official court document to be altered is tampering with eveidence.Deny all knowledge and plead not guilty.

 

This cased has already been heard! I have updated the original post, what happened on court has been added below the summons on page one. The officer wrote my registration down at time, its an admin error, as the prosecution had my real registration and told the court what it was.