The Police, Speed Cameras and the 14 day rule
The day started badly ……..
It’s always unusual for Sonia to phone me during the working day and so I knew immediately that there was some bad news awaiting me as I picked up the phone. I wasn’t wrong as Sonia told me that I’d received yet another “speeding ticket” – this time, I’d apparently been doing 47mph on the M42 when the variable speed limit was showing 40mph. Now whether the overhead gantries were showing 40mph, nearly three weeks on from the date of the offence, who was I to argue – they probably were and even if they weren’t, there’s little point in arguing against something like this as I’ve found out to my cost in the past. A quick glance at my diary showed that I was indeed on the M42 around the time the “alleged offence” took place and so rather glumly, I resigned myself to having yet another three points on my licence. With six points on there already, plus these three would mean one more “strike” and I was facing a possible driving (but more importantly, riding) ban.
What is all the more amazing and given the miles I ride each year on bikes capable of 150 mph plus, every single speeding endorsement that I have ever had on my licence, bar one (and there’s been a few J), have been whilst driving a car. Now given that the last four have all been in the Land Rover makes it all the more galling as the Land Rover barely exceeds the motorway speed limit these days due to its age and mileage and that’s with my foot planted firmly on the floor !!
I returned to the more mundane matters of catching up with correspondence at work, but there was something at the back of my mind nagging away about something to do with N.I.P.’s (Notice of Intended Prosecution aka speeding ticket) and time limits.
Now the internet can be a wonderful thing and quick “Google search” later, I found the piece of legislation that I was looking for.
A quick call to a criminal lawyer that I know (that is a lawyer who practices in criminal law, rather than a lawyer that I know who is a criminal J), confirmed my apparent findings.
The letter that I sent off to the Warwickshire Police is reproduced below. My lawyer friend tells me that this is now “dead in the water” as far as the police and any sort of prosecution are concerned. I, on the other hand, am a little less confident, but will be absolutely delighted to have my doubts proved wrong.
Now let’s see what they respond with …..
Copy of Letter sent to Warwickshire Police :
Dear Sir/Madam,
Y***/**/**** - Notice of Intended Prosecution
I received your letter dated 14th February 2012, the references for which are detailed above. I have enclosed a copy of the Notice sent to me, for ease of cross-reference.
You have written to me because I am the Registered Keeper of the vehicle mentioned in your Notice. My address is correct as per the details at DVLC, and the vehicle was not a Company car, and was neither hired nor borrowed.
No Officer spoke to me at the time of the alleged offence, and no accident took place. Also, no Police person has spoken with me at or near the time and place detailed in your Notice. The written Notice is the first indication from you of any intention to prosecute.
Your Notice details the alleged offence as 08.54hrs on 30th January 2012. The Notice is dated 14th February 2012, and was delivered to me by first class post.
Excluding the day of the alleged offence, the date on the Notice was the 15th day after the date of the alleged offence.
Under legislation section 1(1)(c) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, a Notice of Intended Prosecution is required to be served on the driver or registered keeper within 14 days of an alleged offence. Since the Notice of Intended Prosecution was created on the 15th day after the offence, it was impossible for it to have been served on myself within the stipulated 14 days.
I believe therefore that the Notice was served out of time and accordingly, prosecution is time-barred..
Fingers crossed !! JJJ
15th February 2012 (Part 2) : B’ham/Wolves TOMCC visit to my new garage
The second part of the day was a much more pleasurable experience.
My new “garage” has attracted more than a little favourable comment and so I felt having hosted members of the IBA a couple of weeks back, it was only fair to invite over my local Triumph Owners Club.
Sonia again provided food and with several members of the North Staffs TOMCC also coming along, meant that we had another 20 plus attendance. Given by the nice e-mails we received the following day, it would appear that the evening was a great success.
The most amazing thing though concerning that garage, is that we actually had a email from someone wanting to “hire” the garage from us for a few hours for a meeting. I suppose that’s the ultimate compliment that we could receive for what we’ve put together. We actually declined the offer of payment for the hire of the room, instead just asking that a contribution be made to the charities that the TR3OC, later this year, is doing its charity rides in respect of.
Should anyone reading this ever find themselves in my garage, the collection box is just to the right of the door as you leave ….. JJJ
18th February 2012 : Bristol
Another weekend, another show – this time Bristol
My bike club, the Trident & Rocket 3 Owners Club had taken a stand there and that meant two very important things, one, the chance of free entry passes and secondly, somewhere to leave our gear whilst we walked around the show. “We” in this instance was myself and my eldest son, John.
Although I’ve ridden bikes since I’ve been seventeen (some thirty-five years now), I’ve discovered that I’m not the “cool dad” that I thought I would be when it came down to my kids and bikes. Both John and Stephen ride – they both have 600cc Triumphs – and to put it bluntly, I’m not exactly thrilled by their decision to have bikes !! A perfect case of do as I say, not as I do, I think JJ
The Club Stand
Partly due to the forecast of heavy rain, but mainly due to the fact he hadn’t arrived back home until around 5.00am, Stephen opted out of the trip down to Bristol
Although it’s billed as the Bristol Classic Bike Show, it’s actually held nearer to Shepton Mallet. The Garmin read 128 miles as we pulled into the car-park at the showground and after a quick phone call to one of the club members on the stand, a couple of free passes duly appeared.
The first “motorbike” that Sonia had back in 1979 (and I use that description in its loosest possible way) was one of these – a Honda Express. 50cc, 1.5 bhp and a top speed of 30mph
She now rides this – A Triumph Rocket 3 Trike (aka The “Trocket”). 2300cc, 140bhp and a top speed of 135mph
As I’ve said before, shows for me have long since stopped being anything other than a social event and an excuse to go for a ride. Occasionally an exhibit will catch your eye or you’ll pick up something off a stand, but more often than not, my time at shows is spent chatting to people - Bristol
As regards the bikes on show, I think I actually spent more time looking at a “40 miles from new” little Honda moped than anything else and that was only because Sonia had one of these back when she was 16. She now rides a machine 46 times the capacity JJ
We stayed at the show around 4 hours or so, before leaving for home – just as the rain started. Neither of us had carried waterproofs with us and so by the time we ridden through the storm and out of the rain, we were “somewhat moist” J. It didn’t help matters that the temperature had dropped significantly and so by the time we reached home, we were both glad that it had only been a two hour ride back.
As we were due to go down to London the next day, I left the bike out overnight but when I woke the next morning, any thoughts of riding the bike much before sunrise disappeared as I looked out of the window to see a blanket of snow covering both the ground and the bike. More relevantly, after snowing, the temperature had dropped to such an extent that the roads immediately surrounding our house had turned into an ice rink. Bikes and ice do not work well together. After watching through the bedroom window, a succession of cars hit ice and slide unceremoniously into the kerbside, I went back to bed…… London
The next morning ………
In 7 days time, I’d be heading off to the continent again. This time to the Netherlands and Utrecht for the “Motorbeurs” show and on the way home calling in at the “Butte Du Lion” (which is the monument at the site of the Battle of Waterloo, just to the south of Brussels) to meet up with some of the IBAUK riders on the first of this years European RTE’s.
Blasts from the Past
As I hoping that many people reading this blog will be following our biking life for the first time, I thought occasionally I’d throw in a few pictures of some of the places we’ve already been to and some of the things we’ve already done. Don’t worry, it’s just going to be pictures – so there’s no difficult reading to do J
Following one from the last picture, here’s a few “snowy” ones to start with ……
Northen England
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