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Adeydw
First post, so forgive any niavety here please!

My beloved was stopped last October in Reading, given what we understand to be a verbal NIP for 34 in a 30, and then offered speed awareness. She duly booked and paid for a course in Newbury (where we both work, though live in S Wales), but this was then cancelled due to the poor weather in January.

She has since tried to rebook at least twice, but been told there were no suitable courses (other than one the day after she last contacted the provider!). TVP have now withdrawn the offer of the course, and sent out a conditional offer for a fixed penalty. My wife appealed the withdrawl of the course offer, explaining the circumstances, but this was refused.

So, now she can't get a refund on a course that couldn't be provided, and has to pay the fine and take the three points. Incidentally the conditional offer also states "Speed if applicable 40mph" on the offence details, though she was told 34mph by the officer. She doesnt deny the offence, she was stressed and running late to a catch a train to go to an interview after getting held up by a pile up on the M4, but the entire approach seems unreasonable, and the "facts" of the offence and ability to rebook a course variable to suit TVP.

Any suggestions of ways to challenge this would be appreciated
Jlc
Firstly the awareness courses are discretionary - but this usually applies to being offered on in the first place.

The issue is the timing of taking the course - they have 6 months from the date of the offence to prosecute. They've now reached the point where they are attempting to avoid a 'time out' by reverting to a CoFP. Failure to accept this will result in a summons.

Have a look at this thread. At least £40 might be refundable but given the circumstances I would push for more!
redloner
If you have a look at page 6 here, you'll see;-

http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/unifor...0Compliant_.pdf

QUOTE
A course can only be offered if it can be taken up and completed within the time limits set by the referring force, normally no more than four months from the date of the offence.

and I suspect the inability to attend the course within that timescale, has triggered the withdrawal of the offer so the chance of a timeout is reduced, as Jlc has mentioned.
SpecB
"but this was then cancelled due to the poor weather in January."

"So, now she can't get a refund on a course that couldn't be provided,"

I understand this to mean that TVP cancelled the course. Surely that shouldn't mean the OP's beloved is penalised, either financially or otherwise?

3phase278
QUOTE (Adeydw @ Wed, 13 Mar 2013 - 15:43) *
but this was then cancelled due to the poor weather in January.


who cancelled it - yourselves or them?
squaredeal
AADT again. It's amazing how none of the staff have been told about levy refunds - which has been in effect for over a year.

If the course was cancelled by them, an attempt was presumably made at the time to reschedule your wife FOC within the remaining time (which wouldn't have been long seeing as the offence was in October and we are talking about a course in January). If your wife wouldn't or couldn't commit to a new date the onus would have been on her to reschedule.

If the course was cancelled by AADT without any attempt by them to reschedule I would push for a full refund.

If the course was cancelled by your wife and not rescheduled in time then I'm afraid she's no chance of redress apart from insisting on the refund of the £40 NDORS Levy.
She is quite entitled to that.

To be honest it looks like your wife was pushing the time limits, leaving little room to manoeuvre.
sgtdixie
There is no justification to refuse to refund the course fee as the provider cancelled the course and has failed to apparently provide an alternative. The fee is for the course it is not a non refundable donation to the Police.

I think this is one occasion where our old friend H and Guildford Youth Court may apply.

The Police made an offer to deal with the offence other than by prosecution. The driver had several conditions to adhere to such as paying a fee, no course within 3 years etc which she did. For (possibly) good reasons the course was cancelled, however by failing to provide a reasonable alternative (1 days notice being unreasonable to some) the driver now faces prosecution for reasons out side of her control. I think that if she is prepared to employ a solicitor to make an abuse of process argument she may well be successful. Given she fully admits the offence and can take the COFP this is a high risk strategy.
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