MS90 and a SP30 on licence from last March which I new nothing about

[Manxman in exile]

Changing the address on your driver's licence is irrelevant.  The address you must change is the address on your car's V5C (used to be known as the car's logbook).  Are you the Registered Keeper of the car with the DVLA and do you have the V5C in your possession?  If you are and you have, is the address on the V5C correct?

 

If you don't own the car (eg it's on a lease) the lease company or somebody else will probably be the RK and will hold the V5C.  If so, have you updated your address with them?

 

The most important question at this stage is:  "When did you find out about these past convictions?".  

 

My understanding is that the correct course of action for you now is to swear a statutory declaration that you were never previously aware of these proceedings against you.  If you swear it within 21 days the court must accept it.  The effect of a statutory declaration is that it resets the process and gives you an opportunity to enter a plea to the charges.  So it removes the conviction and points for the time being, but you still have to face the charges.

 

If you are outside the 21 day window, it gets more complicated...

 

A statutory declaration can be sworn for free at a court or in front of a solicitor for a fee.  I'm not sure, but I believe the usual advice is to try to swear it at the court that convicted you, or failing that your local court.  Try contacting them and explain what has happened.  Do it ASAP.

 

Are you sure you have both a SP30 and a MS90?  I think that indicates they've convicted you of both speeding (without any evidence?) and failing to identify the driver.  That's unusual as if they have no evidence you were driving the court can really only convict you of the failure to identify.  You need to find out exactly what circumstances you've been convicted in.

 

You need to get it sorted out as the MS90 conviction will load your insurance premiums for the next 5 years.

 

Aren't you being chased to pay a couple of hefty fines too?

 

Ther is another regular poster @Man in the middle who is more knowledgeable than me and can give you more useful advice.  Hopefully he'll see this.

[Manxman in exile]

Just to add:

 

1.  So long as you contact the court within the 21 days to arrange to swear a statutory declaration, you should be OK even if it takes more than 21 days to get it sorted, so long as the delay was only because the court could not arrange an earlier date.  Keep a record of any communications you have in respect of arranging a date.  Try to stay within the 21 days.

 

2.  Get the details of your two convictions ASAP.  I'm not sure but I suspect you'll need those before you can swear the SD.  Were you convicted in your local court?

 

3.  It's a pity the convictions appear to be from March 2022.  That might limit your options after you've sworn the SD as to how you can plead.

[Manxman in exile]

[Cross-posted with @Man in the middle]

 

As posted before I think you will need to swear a statutory declaration in court to the effect that you were unaware that you had been charged with these offences and had been convicted without your knowledge.

 

Did you find out more than 21 days ago?  If you do a stat dec within 21 days of finding out about the convictions the court has to accept it - no questions asked.  If you are outside 21 days, you will need a very good reason for the delay or it will all become more difficult for you...

 

If I were you I would try to contact the court that convicted you and ask for details of the convictions.  From that screenshot of your licence, were you convicted at Southend-on-sea magistrates court?  (Sorry - I'm no expert at interpreting driving licence records!  Do you live in Southend?)

 

I can't really be any more help.  If it was Southend mags court you could try contacting them and ask.  Their number appears to be 01245 313300 according to this link:  Southend Magistrates' Court - Find a Court or Tribunal - GOV.UK (find-court-tribunal.service.gov.uk)

 

I think if I were you I'd be trying to sort this out fairly urgently.  If you drive for a living you don't want 9 points on your licence if you can avoid it.

 

(Somebody somewhere down the line - your employer or a vehicle hire firm perhaps? - must have supplied the wrong address for you to the police otherwise you would have known about this earlier.  You should have received at least two earleir communications in respect of this)

 

[Manxman in exile]

Yes - looking more closely at the dates they probably can't be connected.

 

Speeding offence date 3rd March 22, failure to identify 2nd March 22.

 

The failure to identify offence only happens 28 days after they sent you the s172 response to name the driver and you failed to respond.  Assuming you weren't the RK that means that the speeding offence connected with the failure to identify charge must have been sometime in January 22 or earlier, and nothing to do with the 3rd March speeding offence.

 

The RK of the car that was connected with that earlier speeding offence (or the last person in the chain between that RK and you) must have nominated you as the driver but given a wrong address.  Either that or several different documents relating to the offence have gone missing in the post...

 

At some point you need to find out how you came to be nominated in respect of the failure to identify charge, and see if whoever nominated you gave your correct address.  If they didn't (and if it wasn't your fault they gave the wrong address) that might help you with the failure to identify charge.

 

But your current priority is arranging to swear the stat dec.  (NB - what you swear to must be true, otherwise you commit an offence)

 

Couple of curious points:

 

1.  Difficult to see how you could have been convicted of speeding in your absence at Southend if you had never responded to a s172 request asking for driver details.  I presume you had never been asked to id the driver in respect of the 3rd March speeding offence?

 

2.  Two convictions entirely unrelated to each other suggest that somebody gave the wrong address for you on more than one occasion if you never received the two sets of paperwork.

 

[Edit:  You don't happen to have a very common name that could lead to confusion with somebody else do you?  like John Smith?]

Edited January 16, 2023 by Manxman in exile

[Manxman in exile]

Without knowing exactly what circumstances led up to the two convictions I'm not sure anybody can say with certainty that this can be "easy sorted".

 

Yes a stat dec can be done to set aside the convictions, but the OP will still face the original charges and we don't know what defences he (or she) will have to those original charges.

 

[Edit:  although the 3rd March speeding offence will now have been over 6 months ago, I assume it won't have timed out and that the original charge will still be active, but I may be wrong.  I'm pretty certain the failure to identify charge will still stand]

Edited January 16, 2023 by Manxman in exile