Am I safe from summons yet (6m passed)?
Discussion
I was stopped in early Feb for driving rather fast down a motorway/A road. I was given a caution/NIP (I think) by the roadside but I don't remember the officer saying a specific offence. He gave me an option of court or S59 so I took S59 (and have barely been above 70 since!). I haven't received anything through the post since, so I assume I only have to worry about the S59 and no summons will appear, but I'm asking to put my mind at rest!
Cheers!
Cheers!
vonhosen said:
ModernAndy said:
seems like a fairly liberal way of interpreting section 59 unless there's more to it but that's beside the point. Perhaps the question should be 'can I get a S59 and still be given a summons for another offence at the same time?'
The answer to that is yes.ModernAndy said:
Now I think about it, that's obviously correct. S59 for driving like a knob and points for bald tyres or no insurance or whatever else is wrong with the car.
I suspect the S59 was offered as there wasn't any evidence of the speed, but I'm not going to argue with that. At the roadside it was implied that no further action would be taken but after seeing the recent thread about S59+summons I've been scared of the post. edit: no other offences eg tyres/insurance were mentioned.
Edited by phillll on Tuesday 23 August 22:50
phillll said:
ModernAndy said:
Now I think about it, that's obviously correct. S59 for driving like a knob and points for bald tyres or no insurance or whatever else is wrong with the car.
I suspect the S59 was offered as there wasn't any evidence of the speed, but I'm not going to argue with that. At the roadside it was implied that no further action would be taken but after seeing the recent thread about S59+summons I've been scared of the post. edit: no other offences eg tyres/insurance were mentioned.
Edited by phillll on Tuesday 23 August 22:50
ModernAndy said:
sorry, I didn't mean you. I just meant that if a police officer were to give somebody a S59 then it is completely separate from other offences. They wouldn't have to choose between giving somebody a S59 or doing them for something wrong with the car because that wouldn't make sense.
No offence taken! Personally, I am completely happy with S59 used in this way, everyone involved knows I was driving rather knobbishly (albeit with no traffic), but there's no evidence, so why not slow me down for a year (or for life!) with a S59. I'm only worried by the recent thread about S59+summons but I believe as 6m+ has now passed I only have the S59 to worry about.
Edited by phillll on Tuesday 23 August 23:20
phillll said:
I was stopped in early Feb for driving rather fast down a motorway/A road. I was given a caution/NIP (I think) by the roadside but I don't remember the officer saying a specific offence. He gave me an option of court or S59 so I took S59 (and have barely been above 70 since!). I haven't received anything through the post since, so I assume I only have to worry about the S59 and no summons will appear, but I'm asking to put my mind at rest!
Cheers!
The general rule is that for summary only offences, proceedings must be instituted within 6 months of the offence date. Although there are different mechanisms for each, the general rule applies whichever method of instituting proceedings is used:Cheers!
- charge at a police station
- written charge and postal requisition
- single justice procedure notice
- summons
If you think proceedings are late then ascertain when proceedings were instituted and establish if an exception to the general rule applies.
vonhosen said:
ModernAndy said:
seems like a fairly liberal way of interpreting section 59 unless there's more to it but that's beside the point. Perhaps the question should be 'can I get a S59 and still be given a summons for another offence at the same time?'
The answer to that is yes.Just a quick question out of curiosity. I wasn't aware S59 was being used to deal with speeding. I think I'm correct in saying that S59 was created to deal with anti-social driving offences that were likely to cause disturbance or annoyance. A bit of a boy-racer's ASBO.
Does there have to be some other element to it or can the police give S59 notices for whatever driving offence they like?
Does there have to be some other element to it or can the police give S59 notices for whatever driving offence they like?
ModernAndy said:
Just a quick question out of curiosity. I wasn't aware S59 was being used to deal with speeding. I think I'm correct in saying that S59 was created to deal with anti-social driving offences that were likely to cause disturbance or annoyance. A bit of a boy-racer's ASBO.
Does there have to be some other element to it or can the police give S59 notices for whatever driving offence they like?
The local Police have been using S59's in my part of Essex (Lakeside area to be specific) for a while now to try to stop the weekend racers using the roads around the shopping centre as their own private racetrack. The local press have run a few stories on it and intimated (but did not confirm in the first set of articles) that the S59 is a warning about poor driving behaviour on the road as opposed to any specific offence. I remember another article done as a follow up that stated a couple of cars had been seized as their owners had received a further S59 notice under 12 months from the previous one. This was clearly a bit of media management by the Police and local authority (well done in my opinion) to highlight the powers they are able to use but made clear that these were used sparingly and after quite a few other powers had been exhausted after not impacting on the issue.Does there have to be some other element to it or can the police give S59 notices for whatever driving offence they like?
Overall the use of the S59 in my area looks to have given the Police the upper hand over the racers as they have also had quite a few new CCTV cameras installed in the past two years that allow the issue of the S59 to be backed up with video evidence.
Yex 450 said:
ModernAndy said:
Just a quick question out of curiosity. I wasn't aware S59 was being used to deal with speeding. I think I'm correct in saying that S59 was created to deal with anti-social driving offences that were likely to cause disturbance or annoyance. A bit of a boy-racer's ASBO.
Does there have to be some other element to it or can the police give S59 notices for whatever driving offence they like?
The local Police have been using S59's in my part of Essex (Lakeside area to be specific) for a while now to try to stop the weekend racers using the roads around the shopping centre as their own private racetrack. The local press have run a few stories on it and intimated (but did not confirm in the first set of articles) that the S59 is a warning about poor driving behaviour on the road as opposed to any specific offence. I remember another article done as a follow up that stated a couple of cars had been seized as their owners had received a further S59 notice under 12 months from the previous one. This was clearly a bit of media management by the Police and local authority (well done in my opinion) to highlight the powers they are able to use but made clear that these were used sparingly and after quite a few other powers had been exhausted after not impacting on the issue.Does there have to be some other element to it or can the police give S59 notices for whatever driving offence they like?
Overall the use of the S59 in my area looks to have given the Police the upper hand over the racers as they have also had quite a few new CCTV cameras installed in the past two years that allow the issue of the S59 to be backed up with video evidence.
Are people getting them for doing 88mph on a deserted motorway though? Does their need to be some other behaviour or offence to be taken into consideration?
You could argue that any contravention of any part of the law regards driving is 'poor driving behaviour'
ModernAndy said:
Just a quick question out of curiosity. I wasn't aware S59 was being used to deal with speeding. I think I'm correct in saying that S59 was created to deal with anti-social driving offences that were likely to cause disturbance or annoyance. A bit of a boy-racer's ASBO.
Does there have to be some other element to it or can the police give S59 notices for whatever driving offence they like?
Have you tried reading it?Does there have to be some other element to it or can the police give S59 notices for whatever driving offence they like?
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/30/sectio...
agtlaw said:
Here's the bit that I have trouble with. It states that as well as contravening the road traffic act, the offence must be one which 'is causing, or is likely to cause, alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public'ETA: just to be clear, I'm asking whether S59 can or has be used for a singular speeding offence. I would presume there's more to the OP than speeding but was wondering if my presumption could be wrong.
Edited by ModernAndy on Wednesday 24th August 11:38
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