Seen a few topics on these floating about and had me own question.

I recently got a ticket, caught from a van on a flyover. I have no issues with it, I was guilty and got rumbled, and took my fine.

BUT recently I have heard rumours on the many grapevines that the NIP has 14 days + 2/3 for slow post to be served to you, but for the GATSO's, no unsure of the use of that against getting caught by vans.

In my case, i was caught on the 10/6 and recieved the NIP on the 1/7, so 21days, (with a failed postage paid thingy, so I had to pay for the pleasure of getting it delivered, but thats not the point).

Sorry, that was quite waffley but, my question is, if I had felt up to the hassle, could I have appealed the fine, or is it pretty much a no win situation?

Cheers

Ian.

Would imagine would depend on the failed post date I guess? But I am not 100% on the in and out of NIP, especially with previous attempts at postage,

Yerrr. Their letter was dated the 18th, so they were kind of in the right, other than failing to frank their letter correctly, but acht well, took my dues.

Date of postage = date of service. And it has to be within 14 days of the offence, or it's neither use nor ornament. This is an absolute rule, so even if you were doing 130mph in a 30, if they didn't get the NIP out in time, then that is that is that.

SW

true, cant be prosecuted if not served within 14 days....

A couple of points that may be of interest wrt the 14 day rule....

• It’s not up to the police to prove that the NIP reached the registered keeper within 14 days
  
• It is up to the police to be able to prove that in the normal course of events, the NIP would have arrived at the last known address of the registered keeper within the 14 day time limit
  

If you have any doubts about it, best to seek legal advice

Chris

^^^ WHS if the Police can prove it was dispatched and could be expected to arrive on time you have no chance.

Sure I've posted this on here before now, but never harms to repeat...

Police can prosecute you if:

1) They warn you at the time of the offence that you may be prosecuted (ie - if pulled by an actual live copper)

2) A court summons is served within 14 days (never, ever, ever seen this happen)

3) A notice of intended prosecution is sent to the registered keeper OR the driver at the time of the offence, within 14 days.

The requirement to serve an NIP is NOT activated if there is an accident involved in the circumstances of the offence (so, for example, you could not argue that a prosecution for driving without due care should fail if the reason the offence came to light is because you were involved in an accident - you are deemed to know that there may be a prosecution in such circumstances). "Involved in an accident" is widely interpreted, including forcing another motorist to take evasive action, thereby leading to an accident between others...

All the police must prove is that they SENT the NIP within 14 days (Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 s1(1)©). The requirement to send a NIP is deemed to be complied with unless a defendant can prove otherwise on the 'balance of probabilities'.

Basically, if the police have (and can produce) a NIP which was dated on its face within 14 days of the offence, the ball is in your court to prove that it was not sent in time. Which is rather tough to do.

SW (QC)

Basically, if the police have (and can produce) a NIP which was dated on its face within 14 days of the offence, the ball is in your court to prove that it was not sent in time. Which is rather tough to do.

SW (QC)

Have to say it would be an interesting argument if you can show that the NIP wasn't franked when it went out, but I applaud the OP for accepting his responsibilities for being in the wrong without becoming a victim of 'loophole syndrome'

:orb_clap:

A couple of points that may be of interest wrt the 14 day rule....

• It’s not up to the police to prove that the NIP reached the registered keeper within 14 days
  
• It is up to the police to be able to prove that in the normal course of events, the NIP would have arrived at the last known address of the registered keeper within the 14 day time limit
  

If you have any doubts about it, best to seek legal advice

Chris

This is true; however, IF they were remiss enough not to frank the envelope, and the NIP was therefore delayed, I would say there is a definite failure on their part and hence you would have a 100% "get out of jail free" card.

(I know this for a fact as I actually did something similar from a Police point of view many years ago...)

Oooh, thanks for the replies guys, some interesting points.

The main reason I was tempted to follow this up more is that I'm still under the 2 year probabtion after passing hehe. 7 months of extremely careful driving now it seems ;p

Regarding the franking, they had attempted to frank it, but only half of it had 'franked'.

i personally would ignore the first one, they will no doubt send a second one out for eager collection of their money. you need 6 months to time out the nip and can be done.