Notice of Intended Prosecution

Yesterday I received from a 'Notice of Intended Prosecution' from Dorset Police.
It is alleged that I, or A.N.Other, was driving my motorhome in excess of the speed limit at 10am last Wednesday in the Bournemouth area.

Very interesting, since at that particular time and day I was at home 250 miles away having a lay-in, and my vehicle was clearly visible from the bedroom window.

Concerned old age is catching up on me I have even checked my home security camera recording which gives me a 1 week loop, and sure enough there is my motorhome.

So, either Dorset police cannot correctly read the photographic evidence the claim to have (could that be possible!!!) OR someone is driving around in a vehicle with my number plate on it (very worrying)

The form sent to me for completion and return says I either have to own up to being the driver, or I have a 'legal responsibility to tell them who the driver was' !!!

Can't do either, so instead I have sent them a polite reply by way of explanation - watch this space !!!

Make sure that you don't overwrite that recording - is it date stamped?

Sounds like someone has cloned your number plate.

Frank

My cousin had this happen to him. Fortunately he could prove it wasn't his car because it was an earlier model in the photograph.

Good luck.

Nora

That happened to me a couple of years ago I had a toyota landcruiser which I towed my caravan with at weekends the rest of the week it was parked up on the drive and I drove my works van the rest of the time as a service engineer all over the country and this perticular time I got home to a parking ticket in the middle of the week in Bolton when I was in Perth at the same time of day I contacted them about it and told them the circumstances they said well its your vehicle and your registration we have a picture of it illegally parked so off I went to bolton to view the picture and sure enough same shape same colour but it was a mitsubishi shogan with my plates on so they dropped the fine and found an Asian person driving it about with no liecence or insurance and my plates on it Sorry the wife wont let me write what I said ******************

Please, be very careful with how you try to resolve this!

Firstly, as far as the alleged speeding is concerned, you can almost disregard it.  Without your admission that you were driving at the time, Dorset Police (or the speed camera partnership) has no evidence as to the identity of the driver and should be unable to secure a conviction.

This is exactly why Section 172 was brought in; to ensure that a far higher penalty would be given to someone who refused to admit that they were driving.  The unfortunate consequence is that the innocent still believe that British Justice will prevail and do not understand that they could very easily find themselves facing 6 points and £1,000 in fines for not responding properly to the S.172 request.

The common way that people are tripped up is that the form (usually) expects a response of either "Yes, I was driving the car at that date/time/place", or "It was [wife, son, daughter] who was driving the car, and here are their details" or, maybe, "I had sold the car the day before and here are the details of the new owner/keeper".  It does not provide for your situation, and hence people can understandably drop a clanger.

Possibly the simplest way forward would have been to write back immediately and ask for copies of any photographs in order to help you to identify the driver.  Any request for "evidence", by the way, is likely to result in no cooperation as you are not entitled to see any evidence unless/until you go to court with a not-guilty plea!

Once you see the photograph(s) you might, hopefully, be able to see that they show a different vehicle to yours (e.g. model, colour, bike rack, stickers etc.) which would make it far easier to refute the allegation.

It may be worth your while spending some time perusing http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php? where you will find plenty of people who have found themselves in similar situations before, and there are some very knowledgeable souls there who will be happy to advise.

Good luck!

Steve

Have just telephones Dorset police.
Pointed out to them that I have 3 witnesses who will give written testimony confirming my vehicle was at my home in Lancashire; that I have a security camera recording date and time stamped for the day in question; and that there is a police ANPR camera less than 100m from us pointing my way.
With this info and me describing the picture I had posted to them last night, they rang me back within 10mins and apologised for a mistake.
They say they had misread their photo.
They will confirm this by post asap.
I thanked them for the unnecessary stress they had caused me !!

Result! Strike 1 for the good guys !

Phew!  Well done indeed.

And all it took was a phone call!

PB

peugeotboxer wrote:And all it took was a phone call!

PB

Until some jobsworth halfwit ignores all the evidence and continues with the prosecution regardless.  

I hope not for the OP's sake.

First thing Tuesday morning.
I get my written confirmation that no prosecution action to be take, together with an apology.

Now that is quick !!!

Result

PB

Backtrax wrote:First thing Tuesday morning.
I get my written confirmation that no prosecution action to be take, together with an apology.

Now that is quick !!!

Did they also include a 'get out of jail free' card ready for the next one as compensation for the stress