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
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