Speeding in a company car, everything missed, court date soon. what now?

[Diddums]

Colleague of mine got busted doing 87 in a 70. No denying it was him, there are photos of him driving it. Because of the way our postage doesn't work works, this has been completely lost and it's now gotten to the point of a court date which is now delayed 'cos of the Rona.

Some seem to think that the company will need to take the fall, I maintain that he's stuffed and will likely have to take the points & fine, which will obviously affect his insurance and whatnot.

Who's right? What's gonna happen to him? Does he need to watch "get hard"?

Cheers

 

[yak.h'cir]

My unqualified expectation is that since your colleague has now been informed of the court date the owner of the car has competed their requirement in naming him. Your colleague will need to attend court with representation and a good explanation for not engaging earlier and the judge will appoint a reasonable penalty.

 

[Semple]

I thought you could plead with the judge to say that you'd not received the NIP in the post. Although i don't think that would make much difference. He's probably just over the verge for a speed-awareness course (assuming he's eligible to do one, or the local police force are offering them for that speed over the limit).

 

[Akagi]

87 means the needle was probably nudging 95 on the speedo. What a donut.

So you say he wasn't aware of it until now? I know theres a rule which says the NIP is void of the date on the document is past X amount of days since the incident, but not sure about letters not turning up.

Did the letters go elsewhere? To an old address or to the company?

 

[Nasher]

You could probably get proof of when it was sent out from the sorting office.

The court will likely just issue the standard fine.

 

[Kenai]

Is the court date for him for speeding or for the registered keeper (presumably the company) for failing to supply information on the driver?

 

[gbgt2]

When I was about 19 I had moved out of my parents house but all my mail was still going there. They dropped a letter around to me which turned out to be a NIP saying I was due in court .. last week. I got 5 points for driving 99.7 mph on a NSL dual carriageway. So I'm not sure it made any difference in the end.

 

[Freakbro]

I once had a speeding ticket that I never got [reasons] and it got all the way through to going to court and I was prosecuted for failing to give details etc £800 fine and 6 points, all in my absence.

When I finally found out, I had to contact the court to arrange to go in and just make a declaration under oath that I didn't know about it, this then wiped the fine/points and reset the process to the beginning of the speeding prosecution.

I then missed the next court date too! (that's a long story ) but in the end just ended up with a standard SP30 and fine.

 

[a1ex2001]

He should just suck up the points and fine they are his, I would be surprised if anything he said now made any difference other than re-setting the clock on the process the outcome should still be the same a wedge of points and a fine.

 

[Lopéz]

He will need to go to court and take whatever happens (usually points and a fine) The company cannot take the fall, someone was the driver.

Generally, the NIP goes to the leasing company, who then inform/pass it on to the employer who pass it on to the employee.

As long as the NIP was served to the leasing company in 14 days (it will have been) then that requirement is satisfied, you won't get out of it on that.

 

[Diddums]

Is the court date for him for speeding or for the registered keeper (presumably the company) for failing to supply information on the driver?

The latter.

The car isn't leased, it's company owned.
Our post system is unnecessarily complicated, we have offices all over the world and stuff gets lost very easily. It's a sensitive topic in the office and something I've been trying to change for ages with no luck.

 

[Kenai]

So if it's the company being taken to court for failing to respond to the NIP / request for driver identification, I fail to see how he has anything to worry about (yet).

Once the company have been through the machinations of being slapped on the wrist for not informing the police who was driving, as I understand things it'll effectively reset the clock and then he'll get the redirected NIP as if it had just happened and get processed based on the offence he has committed.

The person who ought to be worried at the moment is whoever received the original request and/or whoever would be responsible for responding to such things - presumably someone in a fleet management role?

 

[cheesyboy]

Surely all the fallout for failure to notify should be on the registered keeper, as they were the ones contacted, who failed to notify who the driver was?

The driver himself will need to take the points and fine for the speeding, but the failure to notify is on the company.

 

[paradigm]

87 means the needle was probably nudging 95 on the speedo. What a donut.

How innacurate is your speedometer!

Unless GPS is massively out also, when I'm doing 70, the car says I'm doing max 72.

 

[rpmmatt]

Need a better timeline here.

Who is named on the V5? The company or the driver?
What is the court appearance for? Just speeding, failure to name or both. This is really important.

Usually, if the NIP hasn't been replied to then the charge will be failure to name the driver and the speeding offence. The S172 offence carries 6 points and has some implications for insurance.

If the company hasn't made the driver aware of the offence until now, he would have a defence against the S172, but would still be liable for the speeding. He might even be able to do a statutory declaration.

If the company never responded to the NIP at all, then indeed they can be prosecuted along with relevant officers of the company, e.g. the company secretary, but the driver would still be liable for the speeding.
From what you've described, the driver will be done for 3points and £100, not sure if 87 will get an awareness course. The company could still be prosecuted for the S172 so suggest you take it more seriously.

You need to visit pepipoo for advice but you need a clear timeline of when things were received, when they were replied to, who is being charged and who is named on the NIP and V5 document otherwise this is all guess work.

 

[Akagi]

How innacurate is your speedometer!

Unless GPS is massively out also, when I'm doing 70, the car says I'm doing max 72.

Would deffo be over 90 is my point. But indicating 95 at a gps 87 wouldn't be uncommon.

Mine is more accurate than that

 

[a1ex2001]

How innacurate is your speedometer!

Unless GPS is massively out also, when I'm doing 70, the car says I'm doing max 72.

and it will likely get progressively less accurate as your speed increases or at least it has in every car I've ever checked against GPS (on a private runway), most cars seem to be about 72/73 on the GPS for 70 indicated but can easily be 5/6 mph out by the time you are doing an indicated 80/90 mph I've always assumed it is done deliberately so the boy racers think they are doing 100 when really they are in the high 80's.

 

[paradigm]

and it will likely get progressively less accurate as your speed increases or at least it has in every car I've ever checked against GPS, most cars seem to be about 72/73 on the GPS for 70 indicated but can easily be 5/6 mph out by the time you are doing an indicated 80 mph I've always assumed it is done deliberately so the boy racers think they are doing 100 when really they are in the high 80's.

It doesn't get that much more innacurate, but I thought it prudent to only mention the maximum speed limit in the UK.

On the continent I've seen much higher speeds and they were still not that far out when compared to GPS.

 

[a1ex2001]

It doesn't get that much more innacurate, but I thought it prudent to only mention the maximum speed limit in the UK.

On the continent I've seen much higher speeds and they were still not that far out when compared to GPS.

Guess it depends on the car, I've never had anything that would be described as a performance car so maybe they don't spend anytime making the speedo's accurate at higher speeds!

 

[BUDFORCE]

Of course it varies on the car/vehicle.

My motorcycle is a good 10% over. Even things like tyre wear or if you have 3rd party alloy wheels, all sorts can throw it out a bit.