ACPO GUIDELINES FOR SPEEDS AT WHICH OFFICERS SHOULD ISSUE A FIXED PENALTY OR SUMMONS

SPEED LIMIT	SPEED FOR FPN	SPEED FOR SUMMONS
20MPH	24MPH	35MPH
30MPH	35MPH	50MPH
40MPH	46MPH	56MPH
50MPH	57MPH	76MPH
60MPH	68MPH	86MPH
70MPH	79MPH	96MPH

Note that these are guidelines only, and the issuing of a FPN is always at the discretion of an officer, assuming of course that you fulfil the criteria mentioned above.

An officer may report you for process and issue a traffic officer report (TOR) which delays the decision as to whether to prosecute, issue a fixed penalty or offer a retraining course.

This decision is made in the traffic process office and, as they have to take into account any explanation offered to them, it would provide you with the chance to provide your explanation and influence the decision.

You could get a letter of representation written by an expert to influence the decision at this stage.

Ask one of our specialist solicitors if they can help with a letter of representation.

This relates to authorised automatic detection offences such as fixed speed cameras etc., so that an FPN would not be issued to the driver or secured on the vehicle at the time, and the procedure has to follow a strict criteria:

The conditional offer must contain:-

• The particulars of the offence so that a driver can understand which incident the offer relates to.
• The amount of the fixed penalty for the offence; and
• A statement that proceedings against the alleged offender cannot be commenced in respect of that offence until the end of the period of 28 days following the date on which the conditional offer was issued (a longer period may be specified in the offer).

Otherwise, the same conditions apply as to other fixed penalty notices.

You should check that it fulfils the criteria and consider whether you are guilty of the offence.

If you accept the offer prematurely you may find that you had a defence OR if you reject the offer you will, most certainly have increased costs particularly if you lose your case.

Before doing either you should discuss the offence with one of our specialist solicitors free.

Different rules apply to fixed penalty notices which are issued and usually stuck on the vehicle i.e. parking offences. These are non-endorsable.

No offences will be commenced until after a period of 21 days (the police will not commence proceedings on these types of offences until the lapse of 28 days).

For the purposes of these fixed penalty tickets, it is assumed that the registered keeper is the owner, but a person can produce a statement of ownership stating that he was never the owner or when ownership changed.

If you do not respond to a notice at all and the penalty remains unpaid, then the penalty will increase by 50% as a fine which is registered. A notice of registration will then be issued, but it is possible to provide a declaration to show that you did not receive the initial notice, you were not the owner at the time or that you gave a notice requesting a hearing.

It is always worth acting on these notices immediately; if it is a parking notice and there are circumstances that you feel would make you not guilty, you should do the following:

• Take photographs of any restrictions and exceptions displayed
• Take photographs of loads etc.
• Keep copies of any documentation you have in relation to why you were present
• Make notes of all the circumstance including times of arrival and departure etc.

It is worth contacting a specialist motoring firm who can give you free advice regarding the best way forward with these types of offences, and if disputed, could write to the relevant authority in your defence – there would be a charge for this.

It is important to seek advice because many private companies produce tickets which closely resemble penalty notices, and the procedure is very different, as is the likelihood of avoiding the penalty.

Note that it is an offence to interfere or damage a fixed penalty notice which has not been issued to you. This is a level 5 fine, currently £5,000.

Once issued with an FPN, you will have 28 days in which to respond so it is vital that you seek advice from a specialist road traffic solicitor such as Auriga Advocates well within the 28 days.

If you are advised that you should be pleading guilty, you should respond to the FPN sending in your driving licence (if not already surrendered) and pay the fine within the deadline given. If you fail, a summons will be issued and there will be an increase in costs and the fine imposed.

If you have a genuine and reasonable excuse for being unable to accept the fixed penalty, sometimes you can persuade the Magistrates to impose the rate of the fixed penalty notice – however, this will usually be the case where the circumstances for being unable to be dealt with under the fixed penalty notice procedure were beyond your control.

If you do not accept that you are guilty then you should reject the FPN or ignore it and the matter will be processed for a court hearing.

If you change your address from the one given by the police officer, it is your responsibility to inform the police so that they can keep you up to date; the Magistrates are unlikely to accept that you were unable to respond to the fixed penalty because you failed to tell the police your new address.

It is always worth considering, if you are likely to receive a high fine and costs, either writing an explanation to the court or paying a specialist solicitor to write a letter in mitigation, which is more likely to persuade Magistrates to reduce your fine and points or sentence you to a fixed penalty rate.

If the matter has progressed to being proved in your absence and/or you have received a notice of fine/disqualification then you should call us immediately for advice.

TO READ MORE ABOUT CONVICTED IN YOUR ABSENCE

If you have sought advice and wish to plead not guilty, you should respond to the fixed penalty with a not guilty plea and a summons will be issued for court proceedings; the same would occur if you just ignored the summons. 

There are a variety of offences which can attract a fixed penalty ticket all are subject to the criteria deal with below but offences which may attract fixed penalty tickets are:-

1. Speeding
2. Mobile phone
3. Parking
4. Failing to comply with traffic signals/signs
5. Careless driving
6. Excess Weight offences
7. Excess hours breaches

There are a variety of offences which can attract a fixed penalty ticket all are subject to the criteria deal with below but offences which may attract fixed penalty tickets are:-

The most commons fixed penalty tickets for motoring offences are :-

• Speeding/careless driving/failing to comply with a sign etc - £100 fine and 3 points
• Mobile phone/failure to provide driver information - £200 and 6 points
• No insurance - £300 and 6 points