Speeding is a crime and it’s probably the most common crime in the country. While most offences end with a small fine and three-penalty points, higher speeds can lead to immediate disqualification and repeated offences can lead to totting up driving bans, which can be avoided if you persuade the courts that a ban would cause exceptional hardship to you or somebody else.
Even where an immediate ban is not imposed, the courts regularly impose six-penalty points on driving licences. If you are a new driver within your first two years of passing your test that will usually mean the immediate revocation of your driving licence. If you have held your licence longer it can still mean disqualification under the totting up provision.
It is always worth looking at the evidence in speeding cases. Frequently cases fail for legal reasons but also for technical reasons to do with the detection equipment.
Examples of legal reasons might be where a police officer has operated either a laser or radar speed detection gun on every vehicle approaching him. Speeding is the only offence left in England that requires corroboration for a conviction to take place. Thus, the evidence of speeding comes from the police officer not from the speed detection equipment. The speed detection equipment is only corroboratory of the police officer’s assessment of speed. So, if the police officer is not forming an opinion before operating the equipment there is no admissible evidence of speeding.
An example of a technical defence arose in a recent case involving a fixed speed camera that had indicated our client was speeding. By simply counting the lines on the road, we were able to show that the camera was wrong, and our client was travelling much slower.
If you are convicted the court will impose sentence based on the speed of your vehicle, the faster you drive relative to the speed limit the higher the penalty.
At the bottom end of the range, you will receive three-penalty points and a find roughly equivalent to half a week’s income. At the top end, you’ll receive a driving ban of up to 56 days (although in really serious cases that could be longer) and a fine of a week and a half’s income.
If the number of points you receive brings the total you have received in the three-years either side of the offence to twelve or more then the court must disqualify you from driving for a period of six-months the first time it happens, rising to two years if you are repeatedly caught. You can ask the court not to disqualify you if you can show a ban will cause exceptional hardship to you or somebody else.
By instructing a specialist motoring solicitor with experience of defending these cases you increase your chances of staying on the road. Call us today on 01869 866 490 or drop us an email via our contact page.