Summons to court after complying with fixed penalty offer

[wildone63]

Back in august i accepted the offer of a fixed penalty of £60 for a speeding offence (37 in a 30 zone)and sent away my licence and cheque by recorded delivery,the fixed penalty unit to where i sent the letter was in a different force area to the prosecuting constabulary.
I was pleasantly suprised a week later when the fixed penalty unit returned my licence (without points added)and the cheque along with a covering letter stating that 'our records indicate that you have recentley completed a speed awareness course therefore no further action will be taken against you'.
This was correct becuase i had recentley attended the course in relation to another speeding offence,so,in effect the course had covered me for both offences...phew!
Imagine my outrage when today i received a summons to court for prosecution for speeding ,the same incident for which i had already complied with the fixed penalty offer
After calming down and reading through the summons its obvious that there has been some gross lack of communication between the fixed penalty office and the prosecuting constabulary,resulting in a civilian police worker employed by the prosecuting constabulary in reporting me for having failed to comply with the fixed penalty offer and thereby triggering a prosecution for the original speeding offence.
What to do now?
I dont now have the 'no further action will be taken against you' letter that i received from the fixed penalty office and i dont now have the recorded delivery receipt i got from the post office when posting my licence and cheque.
It seems i can only hope that the fixed penalty office will have their decision on record and will supply me with proof of this,anyhow i will be phoning them tommorrow to explain things.
Over to you lot.
Cheers.

[wildone63]

herewego said:

You should have contacted them when you saw that they had made a mistake. You took a chance and lost that's all.

Iam not sure what youre getting at ,what chance are you referring to,and who should i have contacted ? the fixed penalty office or the police?.
Any mistake that they have made has only come to my attention today when i recieved the summons

[wildone63]

herewego said:

They were obviously wrong to return your licence and cheque and you knew that.

Whether they were wrong or not is not the point,the point is that i complied with the fixed penalty offer in good faith and i dont see how any prosecution can now go ahead based on the false allegation that i failed to comply with the fixed penalty offer.
If a prosecution does go ahead i will see to it that someone at the fixed penalty office is brought to book whether i get found guilty or not.Iam sure the decision to return my licence and cheque would have been taken by someone in authority,not just some pen pusher.

[wildone63]

14-7 said:

Why would you completing a speed awareness course cover two offences?

Maybe the fixed penalty office can answer that,the offences were on consecutive days.
This prosecution has been triggered by some civilian police worker alleging that i did not comply with the fixed penalty offer,this person is obviously unaware of the fact that i did comply,i have a copy of their witness statement.

[wildone63]

vonhosen said:

Plead guilty at court & your mitigation should lead to the original FPN penalty being imposed.

I cant see what case there is now for me to plead to,when i accepted the original fixed penalty offer was that not in effect a guilty plea?
The fixed penalty office then take a decision to return my cheque and licence without points added.
Case closed.
Surely 3 months down the line if they realised they had made a mistake,they would have contacted me to explain this,rather than me just receiving a summons out of the blue?

charliedaker said:

Surely you would be able to produce the letter at court

Unfortunatley as i said earlier i binned the letter,didnt see any reason to keep it.

Edited by wildone63 on Thursday 8th November 21:21

[wildone63]

vonhosen said:

If the fixed penalty scheme isn't completed for whatever reason (I can't see that it really matters if it's through your choice or their's) then it can default to a summons as long as it isn't timed out. Your mitigation (of willing to accept the original FPN) should lead to a punishment no greater than that penalty (the original FPN) if you plead guilty in relation to the matter.

Well,ive certainly got no intention of accepting the original FPN.fk em! i acted in good faith,accepted the original offer,they had their chance to take my £60 and give me 3 points and they made their decision not to.That should carry a lot of sway with any court.This case wont go ahead without the decision makers at the fixed penalty office being made to look like a bunch of tits.
Do you think its worth my while contacting the court or police to explain that the fixed penalty office decided to take no further action 3 months ago?

[wildone63]

vonhosen said:

This is what I don't get.

The speed awareness course you went on, was this in the force area you sent the fine etc to & who returned it to you ?
Why are you sending the payment to a different force area to that where the offence happened ?
Were both offences in the same force area ?

Edited by vonhosen on Thursday 8th November 22:00

Both speeding offences and the speed awareness course took place in northumbria police area,i returned my acceptance of the fixed penalty offer to northumbria police hq,but i had to post my licence and cheque to
Fixed Penalty Office
PO Box 223
Morley
Leeds
LS27 1ND

[wildone63]

Wozy68 said:

Why don't you just fk off. You lowlife. It's tts like you that have totally fked up this country. You selfless self satisfied .

Hmmmm, feel better now. No wonder the guy has posted so often. Must work for government to be so far up his own arse. :-)

LOL i bet theres not many people on this forum would have done what he said.
Ive found many times in the past in certain circumstances that it pays to keep quiet if you are aware that a mistake has been made which you could benefit from

[wildone63]

Time for an update,firstly i'll clear some confusion up
I got caught speeding on 2 consecutive days,but both fixed penalty offers arrived about 2-3 weeks apart,for the first offence i was subsequently offered and booked myself on the speed awareness course,this was even before the second fixed penalty offer arrived.A couple of weeks later,around the time i took the course the second fixed penalty offer arrived to which i admitted being the driver and sent off the £60 plus my licence to have points added.
When the fixed penalty office returned my licence and £60 stating that no further action would be taken due to my having completed the course i genuinely assumed that the fixed penalty office had decided that because both offences were on consecutive days (19hrs apart)and i had completed the course that it would not be in the public interest for me to be fined £60 and be given 3 points.So all posters who claim i was trying to 'keep quiet'or trying to hide something are wrong

daz3210 - ive now been told the fixed penalty office at morley is the central collection office for the north east and yorkshire.

covboy - can you tell me where in this thread i have written 'I’m going to forget about it'?

I spoke to the central collecting office at Morley today and it seems that they cocked up by neglecting to inform northumbria police that i had complied with the conditions of the fixed penalty offer,and they do still have a copy of the letter which they sent me stating that no further action would be taken against me.
I also spoke to northumbria police and explained the situation,and they are going to speak to their colleagues at Morley on monday about the matter,and i will be informed then as to how things stand.
The only thing which still could be a problem is that the fixed penalty office at Morley are now saying that their decision to take no further action against me was a mistake,and that the person who wrote that letter got mixed up between the first offence for which i took the course and the second offence for which i sent my licence and £60 to them,but if they go ahead with prosecution i will be contending that any decision made by the fixed penalty office whether right or wrong is not for debate at the court hearing and that the only matter that the court will be interested in hearing is that i complied with the conditions of the fixed penalty offer,and that no prosecution ought to have been started,and if the police still want their £60 and 3 points then that is a seperate matter and they will have to go and start all over again.

[wildone63]

Deva Link said:

Good luck with that - the only matter the court will be interested in is whether you were speeding or not.

However I would be pretty amazed if they do proceed with this.

It ought not even have to get to the stage where the court will be interested in hearing whether i was speeding or not.and there is no question about whether i was speeding,i already admitted that before i accepted the fixed penalty offer.
I imagine that most people would also be amazed if they proceed with this,
but then again......http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/4203375.stm

Edited by wildone63 on Friday 9th November 19:24

[wildone63]

LoonR1 said:

Re the bit in bold.

You didn't think to post on here about the 14 day limit for the NIP?

Assuming the first SAC offer arrived the day after the speeding incident (extremely unlikely), then the other would have had to arrive pretty soon after to comply with the posted within 14 days rule, certainly unlikely that you'd have returned it and completed the SAC before the other one arrived.

Something not right here.

I got caught speeding in a lease van so it took a while for it to get back to me via the leasing company then my employers.
I did check up and both NIP's were sent within 14 days.

[wildone63]

Deva Link said:

Magistrates courts are very random - if it does get to court and you try and argue a procedural error they'll likely think you're a smartarse and whack you with a hefty fine.

well if it does get to court there should be no dispute that a procedural error occured especially when the fixed penalty office have already addmitted it.
I think the court will realise i have a valid point.

[wildone63]

At the end of the day all i really want is for them to drop this false allegation that i failed to comply with the conditions of a fixed penalty offer,which has triggered this prosecution,afterwards they are free to go and take whatever action they can to get their £60 and 3 points awarded.i dont think thats too much to ask considering it was their error in the first place.Thats the thing that iam pissed off about.

[wildone63]

Another update,manageress of fixed penalty office has admitted goof and that no summons should have been issued and has apologised and agreed to send this in writing for me.
Police have offered to withdraw summons if i now surrender my licence and send £60 a second time.they must think i was born yesterday,because i now KNOW that i can,if i wish,still appear at court and have it chucked out whether i have surrendered my licence again or not..
But before i make final decision i will be speaking to a solicitor to seek advice and see whether iam legally obliged to comply with any police request to surrender my licence a second time for same offence.