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Single Justice Procedure Letter for Seriously Ill Mother
robnetuk
post Thu, 28 Nov 2019 - 20:14
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Hi All,

I am new to this forum and would very much appreciate some help/advice from somebody. This issue is quite complex (in my uneducated opinion!) so I will do my best to explain as clearly as possible.

Some background information:

My mother has been quite ill since early this year, and has been undertaking various tests at hospital. There was also a major house move back in March from the home she had owned for approx 20 years. So on top of the stress of illness she also had a house move - and all the address changes associated with it. A lot of address changes still remain outstanding, but in the last few weeks we have recently changed the address on her V5C.

To make matters more complicated, my mother has been in hospital for almost 10 weeks now due to her illness.

Now to the issue at hand:

She was caught speeding back in mid June - 37 in 30 zone. We had a royal mail redirection from our old home to the new home of my girlfriend and I, and at the end of June we saw had received a Notice of Intention to Prosecute. My mother filled out the form and admitted she was driving.

Due to the amount of mail being forwarded to us FAO my mother, we had somehow missed the offer of speeding awareness course or 3 points and a fine. Whilst cleaning out some of our cupboards about 4 weeks ago which were full of unsorted things from our move, I noticed the letter and panicked.

There is a bit of an issue in that she is on a hefty amount of medication including very strong painkillers. Having spoken to her about the offer of course or points & fine, she wasn't sure if she had already received it, written back and accepted the points and fine or not but had not had further correspondence regarding it. She would obviously prefer the course but is in no fit shape to attend it.

One of my sisters has left her job to help look after my mother as much as possible, visiting her every day in hospital. I informed my UK sister of the letter and she has tried calling the number on the offer letter multiple times to find out the status of her offence but has so far been unable to get through and speak to anybody. So we had essentially been left in the dark.

Today I received a notice in the post saying that my mother has been charged with an offence that can be dealt with by way of the Single Justice Procedure - so it appears she had not accepted the points and fine.

The letter gives us 3 options and we have 3 weeks to respond:
1. Plead guilty under the SJP
2. Plead guilty in court
3. Plead not guilty


I really have no idea what to do now or what any of this means. The ideal situation would be if she could accept the original 3 points + fine, which we would have done a long time ago had we known her acceptance of this was still outstanding, but I am not sure if we are too late for this now?

I would really appreciate any help or advice from somebody. Please help me!

Apologies if I have included unnecessary information in this post but thought it was important to understand the situation we are in.

Edit: removed unnecessary extra info.

This post has been edited by robnetuk: Thu, 28 Nov 2019 - 21:21
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post Thu, 28 Nov 2019 - 20:14
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The Rookie
post Thu, 28 Nov 2019 - 20:31
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Pleading guilty to the SJPN seems the obvious move, I don’t see any mitigation worth taking to court and it will be a lot less hassle for her.

You could explain the situation and explain how the CoFP wasn’t accepted (keep it brief though) and ask that they sentence at the FP tariff as reason it wasn’t taken up was unrelated to the offence. They may or may not do so, but don’t ask, don’t get!


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robnetuk
post Thu, 28 Nov 2019 - 21:03
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Thank you for your reply. I'm seriously uneducated on these matters - how specifically would I go about explaining the lack of acceptance of the CoFP? Is there some kind of option to do this when pleading to the SJPN?

I'm also guessing it's not worth my sister continuing to try to call the number on the NIP letter to try and get the matter resolved that way?
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Jlc
post Thu, 28 Nov 2019 - 21:34
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The matter is now at court - calling the number on the NIP won't help.

There is specific court guidance about circumstances where a fixed penalty was offered but not taken up - usually for administrative reasons unconnected with the offence itself.

The starting point will be normal sentencing - so a fine around 33% of weekly relevant earnings, costs of £85 and surcharge of 10% of the fine (min £32). As noted above she can briefly explain the medical/address issues and request a fixed penalty equivalent but they don't have to oblige.

This post has been edited by Jlc: Thu, 28 Nov 2019 - 21:35


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RK=Registered Keeper, OP=Original Poster (You!), CoFP=Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty, NtK=Notice to Keeper, NtD=Notice to Driver
PoFA=Protection of Freedoms Act, SAC=Safety Awareness Course, NIP=Notice of Intended Prosecution, ADR=Alternative Dispute Resolution
PPC=Private Parking Company, LBCCC=Letter Before County Court Claim, PII=Personally Identifiable Information, SAR=Subject Access Request

Private Parking - remember, they just want your money and will say almost anything to get it.
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Logician
post Thu, 28 Nov 2019 - 23:32
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Fill in the form for her and get her to sign it. There will be a section for mitigation, write something along the lines of "I fully admit the offence and would have accepted the Conditional Offer of a Fixed Penalty had I been able to do so, but unfortunately have been seriously ill in hospital for the past ten weeks and have not yet been discharged. so have been quite unable to deal with this matter. My family have received advice that there is guidance to the court to sentence at the equivalent rate to a fixed penalty if a fixed penalty has been offered but could not be taken up for reasons unconnected to the offence. I therefore request the court to follow this guidance in my case."


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robnetuk
post Fri, 29 Nov 2019 - 11:47
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Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it. I will be seeing my mum tomorrow and will follow your advice. I will update the thread with the outcome once we know.
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