Fixed Penalty notice - 5 MONTHS LATE!!

[Duke84]

I was caught speeding (37mph in a 30) back in July. I was sent the usual letter asking for confirmation of the driver shortly after which I returned straight away .... and then heard nothing .... until last week when they issued the fixed penalty notice 5 months late! Would this give me grounds for any kind of appeal or dismissal?

[raydetinu]

Doubt it, was the first letter titled notice of intended prosecution?

they have 21 days to issue that or out of time.

[Bandit127]

If you returned the NIP as stated then the limitation period is 6 months.

[Aretnap]

Assuming you're in England the police must lay information with the court within 6 months of the offence in order to prosecute you. A conditional offer of a fixed penalty freezes the process and prevents them laying information for 28 days from its issue. Do your sums carefully. If the 28 days take you past the 6 month deadkine then you can throw the conditional offer in the bin - by the time it has expired it will be too late to prosecute you. If the 28 days take you to within a few days of the 6 month deadline then you may wish to ignore it and hope they're not organised enough to lay the information on time, especially over the. Xmas period - though this is a gamble ad if they do you will end up with a fine of a few hundred quid rather than 60. If the 28 days still leave plenty of time to start proceedings then your best option is to accept the fixed penalty - the delay in sending it doesn't provide any sort of defence.