Speeding fines: how to challenge and beat unfair tickets
Most times when you receive a speeding ticket or are pulled over for breaking the speed limit, you have to admit it’s a fair cop. But, if you really think your ticket is unfair you can contest it. Here’s how.
A speeding fine is always unpleasant, but that doesn’t automatically mean you should contest it.
If you are going to fight the fine you need to have a very good argument, and be pretty confident you’ll win, because if you contest the ticket and lose you could see your fine rocket.
When to contest a speeding ticket
Crucially. less than 1% of speeding tickets are contested, and only around half of those go in the favour of the driver.
New rules mean more drivers face £2,500 speeding fines
If you receive a speeding fine from a speed camera the registered driver can respond to the Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) by claiming that they can’t remember who was driving the car when the speeding occurred.
But, this is a risky option as, if the magistrates don’t believe you, they can fine the owner of the car £1,000 for failing to identify the culprit and issue a driving ban.
In order to overturn a speeding fine you need to prove one of the following:
- You weren’t speeding
- You weren’t driving when the speeding took place
- There was no proper notice of the speed limit
- The vehicle caught speeding wasn’t yours
- Your car had been stolen
How to contest a ticket
First of all, you need to reply to your NIP with either a not guilty plea or guilty with mitigating circumstances.
If you aren’t facing a driving ban, then you can plead guilty with mitigating circumstances. You’ll need to outline why you were speeding and why you should be granted leniency. This will then be presented at court and it will be up to the magistrates to decide if you deserve a lighter punishment.
Anyone wanting to plead not guilty will need to respond to the NIP with a not guilty plea then attend a speeding charge hearing to enter your plea again. You’ll then be asked if you have any witnesses you wish to call and a trial date will be set.
At this point, you’ll need to decide whether you want to appoint a solicitor or represent yourself. If you choose to go it alone make sure you fully understand the law and have a solid argument for why you are not guilty.
Magistrates do not appreciate having their time wasted and you could find yourself facing an even more hefty fine if they think you are messing them around.
How to challenge an unfair parking fine
Before your trial, you can request to see the police and prosecutor’s evidence. Go through this to see if it supports your argument – possibly that your car was misidentified, or you weren’t driving, or you think the speed was recorded incorrectly.
Once your case comes to trial it is down to the prosecution to prove that you were driving the car when the speeding offence occurred and that you were travelling faster than the legal limit on that stretch of road.
The verdict
If the magistrates side with you and find you not guilty then no further action will be taken.
However, if you are found guilty you can be fined up to £1,000 (£2,500 if the offence occurred on a motorway), receive between three and six penalty points and you may be disqualified from driving if you were more than 30mph over the speed limit.
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These cameras are only purposed for profits, to whoever comes here to say, "if you don't speed you won't get caught", wait until the day you by accident let your car go 2 or 3 mph above the speed limit and get caught "speeding". The driver focus should be on the road and it's surroundings, not constantly on the speedometer to keep the car at 30mph, but the police knows this, so they cash in on our small mistakes and we as good citizens bent over to them as you are threatened as a criminal that no evidence will be provided unless you go to court. I understand and believe in speed limits but these should be a guidance for drivers not for councils, police, and awareness course centres to cash in on our hard earned cash. Now imagine that a driver in the 2 sec he is looking at the speedometer your kid runs into the road, the driver is distracted yet doing the speed limit, but you loose your loved family member. No one ever talks about how much pressure and stress drivers are now due to the fear of being caught, and i would like to say where police vans are placed, they are not place near busy roads, or roads where pedestrians are more likely to be hit, they are placed where we as drivers feel it is safe to drive at a reasonable speed, but for monetary reasons these roads are heavily policed with hidden police cameras lining the pockets of the council and awareness course centres with cash. And yes i was caught speeding, 35mph in a 30mph zone, a road where there was nothing but verge edges either side, do i think i was being an unsafe driver, no. was in full control of my vehicle, had a clear view of what was ahead of me, no other cars, no pedestrians and no other road or junction. But as a good citizen i will take the hit and pay my fair dues to the awareness course, otherwise i'll fall into the crooked system where the law is not really there to protect anything else but the income and greediness of the system and whoever benefit from it.
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Mrs A and I are both pretty law abiding drivers, I've had no tickets in over 30 years, she's picked up one, 38 in a 30 zone. It happened on the way back from a holiday in Dorset on a main A-road where the limit repeatedly hunted between 30 and 40 every 500 yards, with half of the signs obscured by roadside vegetation. To contest it would have meant going back to take photos of the obstructed speed limit signs, and that would have involved a round trip of 350 miles. Assuming that the obstructing branches hadn't been trimmed back in the intervening two weeks.
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What is rather galling is, if you correctly challenge a ticket and found not guilty you so generously get to walk away with no further action against you (!) Whereas if you challenge and found guilty, the penalty is increased. How is it only one side gets to act with total impunity at no cost to them? Whilst the other has to bear costs, grief etc regardless. The soft target of the motorist yet again.
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18 June 2018