Questions regarding NIP, insurance, and points, help HUGELY appreciated., Threads merged |
Questions regarding NIP, insurance, and points, help HUGELY appreciated., Threads merged |
Mon, 9 Jul 2018 - 11:09
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 9 Joined: 9 Jul 2018 Member No.: 98,794 |
Hi,
Firstly, i'd like to say thanks for reading this post, and another big thanks to anyone who volunteers some help. It's great to see the community in action here for those times where there's been a real error in the process of serving justice, and helping the defenceless people fight back. So to tell you a bit about my situation: I currently have 6 points on my license for speeding, and my car has recently been caught by a speed van doing 35 and 39 in a 30 zone twice in the same week. (35mph and 39mph respectively) I'm legitimately surprised, because after the 6 points last year, i've enabled an audible speed limit notification on my car and have made a concerted effort to go slow. This is where the situation gets a bit tricky: my sister often shares my commute to work with me. She sometimes drives the car, and i sometimes drive the car. We were fairly sure that she was the one driving for one of the two NIP's issued; she has a clean license. The trouble is, we were driving under the assumption that her fully comp insurance had driving other's cars enabled. It now seems that her renewal (which took place just before these speed traps) stripped her DOC from her insurance. She had my explicit permission to use my car, and my car has fully comp+DOC, but now we are in this situation and i have a few questions: 1) If we submit the NIP back with her license details, is there a way in which any person or system automatically checks her details against her insurance. Is this likely? could she get in trouble with her insurer, and if so, would it be a more serious offence than the speeding? I'm not so much looking for the worst-case scenario, just the most likely. 2) We're having a genuinely hard time working out who was driving for the second ticket: our gut instinct both says it was my sister, and in the name of full disclosure i truly hope that it was her, since the extra three points as mentioned would bring me up to twelve but her to only three. If we fill in the NIP with her details, do they automatically cross reference the gender with the photo/video evidence? Instead of worst case scenario again, is there any indication of how likely this is? I don't have access to it save for after a summons (i think) and if it were to be me unexpectedly driving on that day, it would be a genuine mistake on our part. 3) The alternative is for me to register for the full 6 points, which would take me up to 12 points and result in a 6 month ban, i assume. I don't have the money for a lawyer, and i doubt i would be able to argue for serious/mitigating circumstances. If i were to ignore the NIP, and wait for a summons, is there any sense to trying to have the tickets quashed on technical grounds? The 35mph one seems pretty dubious to me, as i was nearly certain that would have been me driving purposefully slow. My fear is that should i plead not guilty to one or both tickets, the judge would rule it a 'wasteful' challenge (i don't know the terminology, sorry) and issue 6 points instead of the original 3, rendering the whole excercise pointless and costly. Any hints on whether it is worth starting this process? I can easily append all the details of the tickets that i have. Any advice on this issue would mean a great deal to me and my sister. Needless to say, a 6 month ban would be truly ruinous for my life. I understand that speeding is a serious offense, and yet the location of this trap on this country road with confusing signeage, (A32 Warnford like a couple of previous posters, also the site of my year-old 6 points) i agree with others that it feels less like justice and more like a cynical cash grab; the kind that the posters on this forum are devoted to fighting back against. If you've read this far, i thank you wholeheartedly. Best, Confused Driver EDIT: Thanks for the swift replies, one and all. I have a couple of follow up questions if you all wouldn't mind delving back in to my case: Okay, i'm thinking that if my sister was not insured to drive, i can't risk putting her down as the driver if there is ANY ambiguity. I'll ask for the pictures to help identify the driver, and see where to go from there. Now that i'm preparing for a worst case scenario, a summons to court for 12 points: How long would this take to go to court? Will i have time to prepare for a 6 month ban? Is 6 months the bare minimum? My offences are all for speeding, no more than 39mph, all on the same road, three within the same week. I have evidence that after the first ticket i upgraded my car to help me to not speed (yes, i know it didn't work, please don't judge!) and one of the subsequent tickets is for 35mph, which i believe is just on the edge of what they normally prosecute for? I've heard that in some cases, if i plead guilty and let them know how sorry i am, they may reduce the length of the ban... is this just a myth? Finally, is it worth hiring a lawyer to fight the 35mph ticket on technical grounds? i have no idea of the ballpark costs but i would like to know some. Also, if somebody can recommend a reasonably priced phoneline to get some initial advice, i'd be grateful. Thanks again, i appreciate it massively. This post has been edited by neckstream1: Mon, 9 Jul 2018 - 13:57 |
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