Speeding Offences

Breaking the speed limit

Speeding offences occur when a driver exceeds the speed limit applied to the section of road on which they are driving. This applies to all speed limits, including temporary ones. There is no obligation for the speed limit to be signposted apart from when the limit changes from one section of road to another.

Speeding offences are dealt with by the issuing of a Notice of Intended Prosecution. If the offence was caught by a speed camera you will be issued with a Notice of Intended Prosecution through the post. If the offence was caught by a police officer and they stopped you, you should be issued with the NIP at the time. A verbal NIP delivered at the time of the offence by a police officer is sufficient, otherwise the police have 14 days in which to serve you with the NIP. You have 28 days to reply to the NIP — if you do not return it within this time period you may be given 6 points on your driver’s licence, or up to a £1000 fine for not identifying the driver.

Fixed Penalty Notice

Most speeding offences, generally the less serious ones, are resolved by a Fixed Penalty Notice. If you are stopped by a police officer and do not receive a Fixed Penalty Notice at the time, it is more than likely that you will be prosecuted in court.

Fixed Penalty Notices carry a punishment of 3 penalty points and a fine of £60; occasionally you may be offered a speed awareness course as an alternative. These are conditional offers and do not have to be accepted by the accused. You also have the option of disputing the speeding offence in court if you feel you have a sufficient defence or have been issued with the Fixed Penalty Notice wrongly. It is advisable that you contact a solicitor immediately should you wish to dispute your Fixed Penalty Notice in court, though it should be noted that the court has the power to increase the fine should you fail in your attempt to overturn the penalty.     

Summons

More serious speeding offences, generally where the speed exceeded the limit by 20mph, are subject to prosecution, whereby you will be issued with a summons to court. The police have 6 months within which to lodge the summons with the court; this does not mean that you must receive the summons within these 6 months, only that the police have to lodge it with the court. The expiry of this date without word from the police does not mean that you have got away with the offence. You will have to plead guilty or not guilty to the charge if summoned to court. Even if you plead guilty there may be certain mitigating circumstances that will reduce your sentence. If you intend to go to court and dispute the offence it is advisable that you contact a solicitor to aid your defence.

The possible punishments for losing your court case against a speeding allegation are:

Maximum fine - £1000; or £2500 for motorway offences                                                                           

Penalty points – 3-6

Disqualification from driving

It is recommended that disqualification from driving should ensue if the speed limit is being broken by more than 30mph, though it may be imposed for speeding that exceeds the limit by less. There is no absolute rule concerning this and it may depend upon the court that you attend. The length of the ban is also subject to the idiosyncrasies of each individual court but will generally last from 7-90 days, dependent upon the circumstances of the case and any possible mitigation that could inspire leniency.

Laws on speeding in road traffic law

Speeding is one of the most common offences under road traffic law. Despite roads being heavily signposted with varying speed limits, cameras in place and various different police speeding operations in place to stop speeding, individuals continue to do so and continue to get caught.

Speeding - a quick way to lose your licence

Speeding laws have been put in place for a reason. That reason is to avoid any accidents on the road and save lives. In recent years, excessive speeding has been recorded in a whopping 26% of fatal crashes in the UK.

Using a road traffic solicitor

Due to the wide variety of road incidents that take place throughout the UK, solicitors specialising in road traffic law are often required by motorists to provide legal advice on everything from personal injury insurance claims to driving incidents and offences.