First of all, the timing of the prosecution against you. The police have six months (twelve, in Scotland) from the date of the alleged offence to begin court proceedings. You have only provided vague dates but you say you received a reminder in May. The date of the original offence is now no longer of any concern, but the later offence of “failing to provide driver’s details” is what’s important. This is committed 28 days after the request was first served on you and it is deemed served 2 working days after posting (despite the fact that you did not receive it). So if you are going to contest the matter on the basis that it is “out of time” you need to find out what the date of that request was. It would be unusual for a prosecution to begin beyond the statutory time limit, but not unheard of, so it’s worth checking. You need to compare that date of the offence with the date on your SJPN. The SJPN should be issued before six months has elapsed from the date of the offence.

Assuming the prosecution was launched in time, I’m afraid you do not seem to have much in the way of a defence. Case law has determined that your response must be in writing. It is used to prosecute the original offence as evidence of who was driving or it used to prosecute people who have been nominated by somebody else (in the way you tried to nominated your wife) to prosecute them if they do not respond. You were given ample opportunity to comply with the request. Had you simply provided it in response to the reminder it is most unlikely you would have seen any action against you. You had no need to use a specific Post Office; in fact you had no need to use one at all but I understand your desire to get proof of posting, in which case other Post Offices were available. Requesting a SAE I’m afraid simply compounded your error.

I believe you will be found guilty if you defend the charge on the basis that you provided the details by e-mail. You may have run a successful defence if you had responded as soon as you found out about the request (and were prosecuted for responding late), but you didn’t.

The guideline fine in the event of conviction is one and a half week’s net income. This would be reduced by a third if you plead guilty. A “Victim Surcharge” would also be imposed. This is 10% of the fine (minimum £34) if the offence was committed before June 22nd 2022, or 40% if it was committed on or after that date. Prosecution costs will also be ordered. These will be £85 if you plead guilty but if you are found guilty following a trial they will begin at £620. The cost of failure following a trial may therefore run into many hundreds of pounds.

Date the original Notice of intended prosecution letter- 1st June 2022 ( which i did not receive)

Assuming it was posted on the same day, it was deemed “served” on you on Friday 3rd June. You had 28 days to respond (so until Friday 1st July). The offence (failing to provide driver’s details) was therefore committed on 2nd July. The police must issue a “Written Charge” (which goes to the court) and a “Single Justice Procedure Notice” (which goes to you) by 2nd January.

In your first post you said you received your SJPN on 4th January (last Wednesday). But you now say it was dated then. You need to check this because, as you can see from the dates, the margins are very fine. This is an extremely risky strategy and you must be absolutely sure of your facts. One other potential pitfall is there could be a discrepancy between the date your SJPN was issued and the date the court was formally notified of the prosecution. The legislation says that the prosecution must issue the “Written Charge” and the SJPN at the same time. But there have been cases where this was not complied with. The Written Charge was issued before the SJPN was issued so the prosecution process was begun earlier. I’m not sure how a court would view this. One other thing I’m not certain of (but will look it up) is whether the day you are served with the notice is “Day 1” of the 28 or “Day 0”. I’ll check that out.

One thing you could do before you respond to the SJPN with your plea is to contact the court and ask them when they received the Written Charge and when it was dated.

Were you served with any other evidence which may shed further light on these dates? Were, for example, told when your original request was posted to you? I made the assumption it was posted the day it was issued. But if it was posted later, it will make a difference to the date of the “Fail to Provide” offence. If it was posted a day later (Thursday 2nd June) it would not be deemed served until Monday 6th June (weekends do not count in the two days “presumption of service). This would make the offence date 4th July.

Sorry to muddy the waters but as you can see, this is not straightforward and if you get it wrong it will cost you (very) dearly.

Edited by Middleman on 10/01/2023 at 19:37

This still leaves 2 working days which would be Friday 3rd June.

Only if it was posted the day it was dated.

I am still unsure where they got the 6th July date from.

If it was posted a day later (Thursday 2nd) it would not be deemed served until Monday 6th. The legislation (Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act) makes the requirement to give information “…within the period of 28 days beginning with the day on which the notice is served…” So, in that case, Monday 6th June would be day 1. Day 28 would be Sunday 3rd July and the offence would have been committed on Monday 4th July. So I, too, am unsure where the 6th comes from.

I can only emphasise that you must be absolutely sure of your ground before you go down this route. You should have been served with the evidence the police intend to rely on to convict you. This would normally consist of statements from the people who sent you the notices confirming the dates they were sent. If you haven’t got them, you need them. You are entitled to them before you enter a plea. The police are the people to ask for these, not the court. But you can get the court to confirm when they were first informed of the prosecution against you.

"I made 2 visits to my local post office to send the form back and add my wife's details but on both occasions post office was closed for that whole week."

Why not buy stamps in pretty much any shop and put it in a postbox?