What Should I Do? Messed up situation..
Discussion
Ok here goes..( My Weekend)
So was looking forward to a pleasant weekend until the post arrived on Sat 26th. So I opened my post and was totally shocked to find a Court Summons from Pontefract & Wakefield Magistrates Court addressed to me. After the initial shock I read the particulars of the summons which are as follows ( I have shortened for convienience):
1. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 143 (2) of the Road Traffic Act. (No Insurance I Think)
2. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 87 (1) of the Road Traffic Act. ( No License I think)
3. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 47 (1) of the Road Traffic Act. ( No MOT)
4. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 164 (6) of the Road Traffic Act. ( Failing to Produce License)
5. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 165 (3) of the Road Traffic Act. (Failing to Poruce License)
Attached is also the Statement of Witness from the police officer at the time of offence.
The problem is:
FIRSTLY- I have never been to Wakefield in my life where the offence happened. ( I live hundreds of miles away)
SECONDLY- I have never owned or even driven the car which is stated in the summons. ( I have never even owned a car with the numberplate that is stated in the summons)
So obviously someone is giving my name and address and pretending to be me rather than the usual cloned plates scenario. Even the details given to the policeman at the time of offence are correct including my date of birth and address. However the first name they gave is slightly incorrect. Even then I am fuming that someone is going around impersonating me.
Now as soon as I got my head around the summons I went srtaight to my local police station ( Cambridge) to sort this matter out. Once there they listened to what I had to say and proceeded to take a witness statement off me. This statement basically says I have never been to Wakefield and have never owned such car and was in Cambridge on the alledged date of offence. Thankfully on the date in question I was at a public function with lots of people around who can actually confirm my whereabouts. They also did a PNC check on the numberplate given in the summons and say the car is registered as trade and has been since 2006.
After taking this statement they said they will forward it to the policeman (who made the stop on the day in question) . They then told me to call the police station in Dewsbury and speak to aforementioned officer. I finally got hold of him late in the evening and told him what was going on and he said he could not recall the incident which is fair enough as it was back in October 07 but he would look into it and get back to me ( He has not yet). He also said call up the court on Monday and explain the situation.
So this morning I call up Wakefield Magistrates Court and explain the situation and they say nothing they can do about it except I can return the summons with a plea of not guilty and then take it from there. They then said that it was likley that I will have to go to court in person at the date they will send me. Now the problem I have with this is, I am moving to Devon for a new job next week and cannot afford anytime off work at all and if I do have to attend court for an incident that i was never at at in the first place I will have to take two days off work ( both costly and highly impractical)
Someone advised me that I shouldnt have to fill out the summons and the police should be able to sort this out without it going that far but I am honestly confused to what I should do.
Please can someone advise me of what are my options and what I should do. What is the likely outcome? What is the easiest way of sorting this out.
Sorry for the long post... I hope it makes sense.
So was looking forward to a pleasant weekend until the post arrived on Sat 26th. So I opened my post and was totally shocked to find a Court Summons from Pontefract & Wakefield Magistrates Court addressed to me. After the initial shock I read the particulars of the summons which are as follows ( I have shortened for convienience):
1. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 143 (2) of the Road Traffic Act. (No Insurance I Think)
2. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 87 (1) of the Road Traffic Act. ( No License I think)
3. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 47 (1) of the Road Traffic Act. ( No MOT)
4. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 164 (6) of the Road Traffic Act. ( Failing to Produce License)
5. On 08/10/07 Dewsbury Road, Wakefield you used a Motor Vehicle, Namely P442 ***.............section 165 (3) of the Road Traffic Act. (Failing to Poruce License)
Attached is also the Statement of Witness from the police officer at the time of offence.
The problem is:
FIRSTLY- I have never been to Wakefield in my life where the offence happened. ( I live hundreds of miles away)
SECONDLY- I have never owned or even driven the car which is stated in the summons. ( I have never even owned a car with the numberplate that is stated in the summons)
So obviously someone is giving my name and address and pretending to be me rather than the usual cloned plates scenario. Even the details given to the policeman at the time of offence are correct including my date of birth and address. However the first name they gave is slightly incorrect. Even then I am fuming that someone is going around impersonating me.
Now as soon as I got my head around the summons I went srtaight to my local police station ( Cambridge) to sort this matter out. Once there they listened to what I had to say and proceeded to take a witness statement off me. This statement basically says I have never been to Wakefield and have never owned such car and was in Cambridge on the alledged date of offence. Thankfully on the date in question I was at a public function with lots of people around who can actually confirm my whereabouts. They also did a PNC check on the numberplate given in the summons and say the car is registered as trade and has been since 2006.
After taking this statement they said they will forward it to the policeman (who made the stop on the day in question) . They then told me to call the police station in Dewsbury and speak to aforementioned officer. I finally got hold of him late in the evening and told him what was going on and he said he could not recall the incident which is fair enough as it was back in October 07 but he would look into it and get back to me ( He has not yet). He also said call up the court on Monday and explain the situation.
So this morning I call up Wakefield Magistrates Court and explain the situation and they say nothing they can do about it except I can return the summons with a plea of not guilty and then take it from there. They then said that it was likley that I will have to go to court in person at the date they will send me. Now the problem I have with this is, I am moving to Devon for a new job next week and cannot afford anytime off work at all and if I do have to attend court for an incident that i was never at at in the first place I will have to take two days off work ( both costly and highly impractical)
Someone advised me that I shouldnt have to fill out the summons and the police should be able to sort this out without it going that far but I am honestly confused to what I should do.
Please can someone advise me of what are my options and what I should do. What is the likely outcome? What is the easiest way of sorting this out.
Sorry for the long post... I hope it makes sense.
Edited by fizz876 on Monday 28th January 21:48
I have been in a similar situation, however in my situation I was convicted in my absence!
However, after I found out about it, I was back to square one, getting the summons through and being told I need to be in court. what i found out is that the court technically dont have any powers yet until the case, and once the evidence has been tendered to the CPS you will have to wait until they look at the case and decide whether to take it further.
The first court date will be the one where you plead. When I got to this stage, I put my plea in writing and also requested that my letter was read out in court and passed onto the CPS so they can drop the case. I have heard nothing since, and this was about a year ago.
The CPS will have no motivation in a case they cannot win. As it is, if the police officer cannot remember the stop, and thus cannot remember your face, ironically even if you *were* driving, if you pleaded not guilty they couldnt convict anyway as they would never be able to prove it was you!
I would suggest writing to the court, putting forward your case that you have never been to the place and on that day you were in fact somewhere completely different and in the presence of other people who can vouch for you. Similarly you have never driven that car. To hammer the point home you could even request that the police/CPS get hold of a copy of your driving licence so the officer giving evidence can confirm that it was not you driving.
The case should simply be dropped and go no further.
However, after I found out about it, I was back to square one, getting the summons through and being told I need to be in court. what i found out is that the court technically dont have any powers yet until the case, and once the evidence has been tendered to the CPS you will have to wait until they look at the case and decide whether to take it further.
The first court date will be the one where you plead. When I got to this stage, I put my plea in writing and also requested that my letter was read out in court and passed onto the CPS so they can drop the case. I have heard nothing since, and this was about a year ago.
The CPS will have no motivation in a case they cannot win. As it is, if the police officer cannot remember the stop, and thus cannot remember your face, ironically even if you *were* driving, if you pleaded not guilty they couldnt convict anyway as they would never be able to prove it was you!
I would suggest writing to the court, putting forward your case that you have never been to the place and on that day you were in fact somewhere completely different and in the presence of other people who can vouch for you. Similarly you have never driven that car. To hammer the point home you could even request that the police/CPS get hold of a copy of your driving licence so the officer giving evidence can confirm that it was not you driving.
The case should simply be dropped and go no further.
RegMolehusband said:
Should you not also be very concerned that this person is possibly still driving around with your registration number and other details?
"Reg"
What can you do?"Reg"
Change your name, get born on a different day!?
Some scrote sold my stolen driving licence on, so they even had my address, photo and driving licence number. Not much you can do apart from hope that the police investigate things properly before laying evidence.
RegMolehusband said:
Should you not also be very concerned that this person is possibly still driving around with your registration number and other details?
"Reg"
I have never owned (or even driven) the vehicle in question. There is no dispute about the car and reg at all. It was not stolen or anything and is legally registered as a trade car."Reg"
RegMolehusband said:
I didn't say you had owned the car, the reg. number will be on some old crate. Or do you mean you've never owned a car with that registration number?
I have never owned a car with that registration mark.Edited by RegMolehusband on Monday 28th January 21:30
Sorry for the confusion...
As a side point, it would be worth contacting Experian and checking your credit record to make sure "you" don't have credit you weren't aware of.
I'd sign up for their £5 a month service where they tell you if someone carries out a credit search. If your identity has been stolen it's better to nip it in the bud.
I'd also pay for Royal Mail redirection for a year (yes I know there is a cost) when you move so you can make sure any post addressed to "you" gets to you so there aren't any unknown surprises at a later date
I'd sign up for their £5 a month service where they tell you if someone carries out a credit search. If your identity has been stolen it's better to nip it in the bud.
I'd also pay for Royal Mail redirection for a year (yes I know there is a cost) when you move so you can make sure any post addressed to "you" gets to you so there aren't any unknown surprises at a later date
As far as I am aware CPS cannot pull the summons once issued. All they can do is offer no evidence.
As stated above I would write to the Court saying Not Guilty, outline all that has taken place with officers details (including difficulty through Devon move. This should at least cause an adjournment whilst enquiries progress and eventually CPS to offer no evidence if all is as you state.
dvd
As stated above I would write to the Court saying Not Guilty, outline all that has taken place with officers details (including difficulty through Devon move. This should at least cause an adjournment whilst enquiries progress and eventually CPS to offer no evidence if all is as you state.
dvd
fizz876 said:
RegMolehusband said:
I didn't say you had owned the car, the reg. number will be on some old crate. Or do you mean you've never owned a car with that registration number?
I have never owned a car with that registration mark.Edited by RegMolehusband on Monday 28th January 21:30
Sorry for the confusion...
Mg6b said:
fizz876 said:
RegMolehusband said:
I didn't say you had owned the car, the reg. number will be on some old crate. Or do you mean you've never owned a car with that registration number?
I have never owned a car with that registration mark.Edited by RegMolehusband on Monday 28th January 21:30
Sorry for the confusion...
Again, I'd personally write to the court with a Not Guilty. The summons is addressed to you.
It's a case where the other 'you' seems to have been stopped and given a producer as the vehicle is showing as 'in trade' so there is no 'current keeper'. Obviously he's then given your details and fecked off, so you receive a summons for all the offences.
Send back a 'not guilty', the officer is unlikely to remember the incident, but it should be evidenced in his Pocket Notebook as having happened.
If you can prove you were elsewhere on the day, you should be ok... which means the only issue is how to get the time off work to go to court and argue your case.
It's a case where the other 'you' seems to have been stopped and given a producer as the vehicle is showing as 'in trade' so there is no 'current keeper'. Obviously he's then given your details and fecked off, so you receive a summons for all the offences.
Send back a 'not guilty', the officer is unlikely to remember the incident, but it should be evidenced in his Pocket Notebook as having happened.
If you can prove you were elsewhere on the day, you should be ok... which means the only issue is how to get the time off work to go to court and argue your case.
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