I’m writing as I have just received a court summons for failing to give information. But here’s the thing: I was never asked to give any information by the police in the first place. As far as I’ve been able to find out, this all emanates from me allegedly speeding at 27mph in a 20mph limit a few months ago. No one ever told me, or wrote to me, about the alleged speeding or asked me to give any information to anyone. I have tried speaking to the CPS and police to get them to drop it but it’s like talking to a brick wall as they simply say it’s a court matter.
I am now due in court next month and I am having sleepless nights with worry. I have been on various forums and social media groups for advice, and I have had everything from, ‘accept the punishment’ to ‘simply ignore it.’ What should I do? I never received any paperwork before the court summons, and I suspect this may have gone to another address in town. My house is called The Oaks, and a couple of roads over there is a house called The Oaklands. The postcodes are similar and I regularly don’t get post or it turns up late. I have a completely clean licence and have never been in trouble with the police before.
Answer
Firstly, whilst it is easy for me to say this, please try to keep calm. You are not off to prison, and this is not worth the sleepless nights. Secondly, be very careful about what you read online. As they say, opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one. So, here’s my advice: whatever you do, don’t ignore this. If you do ignore it and do not go to court, you will likely be found guilty in your absence and get six points and a fine of up to £1,000. Therefore, my advice is that you need to go to \ court, and you need to defend this, pure and simple. Your case is based on the fact you never received any paperwork before the court summons. This would have been a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) asking for you to identify the rider at the time of the alleged speeding.
If the court accepts you never received the NIP, you will not be found guilty of the offence. At this point, I need to say there is a presumption you did. receive the NIP via the post. However, this presumption is rebuttable so it can be challenged. Therefore, in addition to you giving evidence that you never received the NIP and have trouble with post, if I were defending this, I would have the Royal Mail postcode checker printed off for each property, along with a map of your town marked with the respective houses with similar names circled on it. I’d then hand this up to the bench to look at when defending the case to aid in raising reasonable doubt. Basically, you need to tell your story, and a simple visual aid will help them grasp the issue that you never received the NIP and therefore you are not guilty.
Andrew Prendergast
Adventure Bike Rider – May/June 2025
