Speeding tickets: how to challenge a Notice of Intended Prosecution

What is a speeding notice?

A speeding ticket from a camera starts as a Notice of Intended Prosecution. GOV.UK says that within 14 days of your car being caught speeding you are sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution and a Section 172 notice, which asks who was driving. If the police stop you at the roadside they can warn you there instead, and then no notice is needed.

After the driver has been named, the police decide what to do. GOV.UK says you are then sent either a Fixed Penalty Notice, which is a conditional offer of a fixed penalty and points, or a letter telling you to go to court. You may instead be offered a speed awareness course if the police decide it is appropriate for your offence and you have not been on one in the past 3 years.

A speeding matter is a criminal one, unlike a parking ticket. There is no independent adjudicator. If the police do not withdraw the notice, the only way to contest it is to plead not guilty and have a court decide. ByeFine does not act in court.

What about the request for the driver's details?

GOV.UK says you must return the Section 172 notice within 28 days, telling the police who was driving the car. The law behind it, section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, makes it an offence for the keeper not to give the information required. The only defence it gives the keeper is that they did not know, and could not with reasonable diligence have found out, who the driver was.

Nothing about challenging the notice changes this. Written representations do not answer the request, and they do not pause its time limit. Answer it, by the date printed, whatever else you do. ByeFine never answers it for you and does not advise on what to put in it. If you are unsure, Citizens Advice gives free help and a solicitor can act for you.

Which dates matter?

Section 1 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 says a person cannot be convicted of speeding unless one of three things happened: they were warned at the time that a prosecution would be considered, a summons was served within 14 days, or a Notice of Intended Prosecution was served within 14 days of the offence on the driver or on the registered keeper of the vehicle. A notice counts as served when it is sent by post to the person's last known address, and the law presumes the requirement was met unless the contrary is proved.

So compare the date of the alleged offence with the date on the first notice. A first notice to the registered keeper dated more than 14 days after the offence is worth questioning. A notice dated inside the 14 days that reached you later is harder to argue, because the law counts the day it was sent, not the day you opened it.

There are exceptions, in section 2 of the same Act. The rule does not apply if an accident happened at the time. A late notice is no bar to conviction where neither the driver's nor the keeper's name and address could with reasonable diligence have been found in time, or where the person's own conduct contributed to the delay, for example an address at the DVLA that was out of date. And the 14 days apply to the first notice only: if the keeper named you as the driver, the notice to you can arrive later.

Which grounds work?

Each one applies only if it is true for you. Representations say only what you know to be true.

• The first notice to the registered keeper was dated or sent more than 14 days after the alleged offence, and the keeper's address at the DVLA was correct.
• The vehicle on the notice is not yours, or was not there: the plates were cloned or the vehicle had been stolen. Report that to the police and keep the crime reference.
• The registration, date, time or place on the notice cannot be right, for example the notice contradicts itself, or the camera image shows a different vehicle.
• The speed limit was not signed as the law requires. Section 85 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 says that where a road has no street lighting of the kind that makes it a restricted road, a person cannot be convicted of exceeding a limit unless the limit is indicated by signs. On a road with street lights the limit is 30 miles per hour unless signs show otherwise, so missing signs rarely help there.
• The device. Section 20 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 says a record or measurement from a speed camera or gun is admissible only if the device is of a type approved by the Secretary of State, and the record comes with a signed certificate. You can ask for the photographs, the calibration certificate and the evidence of type approval, though some forces hold these back until a case reaches a court.

Not sure which of these fit your notice? Check it free. You see the verdict and the deadline before you pay.

What does not work?

• Not seeing the sign on a road with street lights. The 30 mile per hour limit applies there without repeater signs.
• Being only a little over. Forces follow national guidance on when a course or a fixed penalty is offered, but the decision is theirs, and a small excess is not a defence.
• Saying someone else always drives the car without naming them. The request for the driver's details still has to be answered.
• An emergency. Section 44 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 lets a court decide, for special reasons, not to endorse a licence. That is a decision for a court at the end, not a reason the notice is wrong, and it means accepting that you were driving. ByeFine does not act in court.

Can the police offer a course instead?

The police force decides whether to offer a course, a fixed penalty or nothing at all. GOV.UK says a course may be offered if the police decide it is appropriate for your offence and you have not been on one in the past 3 years.

Written representations ask the force to review the notice and withdraw it, and can ask that, if it does not, it offers a course rather than a fixed penalty. The force can say no to both.

What should I put in my representations?

• The notice reference, the registration, the date and place on the notice, and your name and address.
• Which ground applies, in plain words, and only what you know to be true.
• A request for the force's evidence: the photographs or video, the calibration certificate and the type approval of the device, and the date the first notice was posted.
• Copies of anything that backs you up, such as a crime reference or photographs of the signs. Keep the originals.
• The representations are separate from the reply to the request for the driver's details. Make that reply on the form the notice gives, by its date.

What does ByeFine do?

ByeFine reads the notice and tells you free how strong representations look. If you go ahead, it writes the representations from the notice and what you tell it, in your name, asking the force to withdraw the notice and take no further action, or failing that to offer a course, and putting the force to proof. You then copy the letter from your case page and send it yourself, by email, by post or through the force's own form for correspondence. ByeFine does not send it and does not act for you with the police, so its promise to refund an appeal it cannot file does not apply to this letter.

ByeFine never answers the request for the driver's details for you, never says who was driving, and does not act in court. It is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. It cannot promise a result.