Dear All,
A Motorist facing a ban and massive fine for getting 5 speeding tickets in 15 minutes last week successfully escaped a driving ban.
Darrel Chapman last week successfully pleaded mitigating circumstances to keep his licence, and only received 6 points on his licence instead of 15…
Darrel was under the impression that the speed limit was 40mph, whereas it was actually 30mph.
To his surprise, he started to receive one speeding ticket after another through the post.
“I was quite shocked. I gave myself a bit of a kick and then over the next couple of days I kept getting more and more of them and I thought, ‘Christ almighty, what’s going on here?”
“I think I went into the first one a bit fast. I thought it was a 40mph zone but I got clocked on the first camera doing 50mph. That was the first one I received a ticket for, and to be fair, at the time I just thought, ‘That’s my own stupid fault’.
“But after the first camera, that’s when you start seeing signs for average speed cameras. That’s when I slowed down to 39mph, thinking it was a 40mph zone. But it was actually 30mph!”.
He paid £100 for a speed awareness course for the first ticket, but then decided to contest the remaining tickets in court – where he faced 12 additional points, plus a huge fine.
He was still given 6 points and a £465 fine, but that was way preferable to the instant ban and means tested fine he would have received otherwise…
“I thought it can’t just be me, there must be other people who have had this happen to them. They try to put you off from going to court, and my reason for speaking out was to tell people if you go to court you do have a chance. You can get a bit of common sense out of the court, rather than just accepting it. A lot of people just don’t want the hassle, they just accept it”.
This is a perfect example of mitigation, when a Driver doesn’t want to dispute a speeding ticket — or other alleged motoring offence – but they do want to minimise the penalty…
This has happened hundreds of times for DriveProtect Members over the years.
The stories are too numerous to count where a Member has been sure they’d be banned, but due to the Solicitors successfully arguing mitigating circumstances, they’ve been “let off” with a much lighter penalty.
Indeed it happened to me personally a while back where our DriveProtect Lawyer, Matt, defended me at court. I wrote about it at the time here:
My Experience With A Speeding Lawyer
The moral of the story? Even if you’re “guilty” of speeding (or another motoring offence for that matter), it may not be as bad as you imagine if you successfully plead mitigating circumstances!
All the best,
Adam
P.S. You can read my personal story of “mitigating circumstances” here:
My Experience With A Speeding Lawyer
…or you can become a Member (with the BTST Member Discount) here:
DriveProtect BTST Member Discount Page
…or by giving us a call on 01843 232 791
P.P.S. Completely off topic, I’ve decided to start a managed Bitcoin Fund for friends, family and BTST Members who qualify according to the FCA. I hope to release the details as soon as tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled if its something you are interested in getting in to! :-)
Looks good
I too was given a speeding ticket (via the post) for doing 45mph in a 30mph road. I was speeding but not recklessly or in disregard for the speed limit which I knew about. However, there were mitigating circumstances in that after ringing 999 for an ambulance for a 74 year old lady who was having serious difficulty in breathing only to be told that the ambulance would not be here for at least 3 hours. The operator asked if I had transport and if I had could I take the lady to the A&E as quickly as possible. This I did and fortunately the lady was able to receive treatment within 40 minutes of the breathing attack. She recovered and was allowed home the following day.