Summoned again

laissez-faire · 5 Nov 2006 at 17:18

I pleaded guilty by post to speeding at 100mph on the M6 in Carlisle. I was issued yesterday with another summons by first class post to be in Cumbria TOMORROW (almost 400 miles from Southampton!) at 10am. Rather amazed that they a) trusted Royal Mail to deliver 1st class mail on a Saturday and b) can insist I go to the expense of travelling all that way.

I admit 100mph is pretty bad but seriously it was from 1km away using a safety camera, so - court? Far worse crimes are committed that escape court. Still, I haven't really got a choice.

Sam

Will Gill · 5 Nov 2006 at 17:48

just dont bother tturning up you will more than likely get the same sentence anyway

Jez · 5 Nov 2006 at 17:50

As will says, i wouldnt bother attending that. I'd be perhaps thinking of phoning the court in the morning though explaining yourself. There is no way they could expect you to travel 400 miles for 10am the next day.

panthro · 5 Nov 2006 at 17:50

/\/\/\

As above, Or just say you didnt receive the letter till Monday as you were away for the weekend.

silversurfer · 5 Nov 2006 at 18:01

Have you submitted your license yet? You better notify them or they'll postpone the case and up the court fees on you

Dogbreath · 5 Nov 2006 at 19:11

More to the point have you posted in pepipoo yet? Being lasered at 1km is just a pee take, no mortal can hold a laser gun steady enough at that distance.

silversurfer · 5 Nov 2006 at 19:13

They use tripods?

laissez-faire · 6 Nov 2006 at 15:45

Got 5 points and £150 fine. Decent enough result I suppose since at the end of the day that isn't going to affect me more than a fixed penalty providing I don't get any more convictions.

Jez · 6 Nov 2006 at 15:48

Please dont tell me you actually drove the distance this morning? :eek:

laissez-faire · 6 Nov 2006 at 17:04

Jez said:
Please dont tell me you actually drove the distance this morning?

Well it was worth it to avoid a ban. The letter effectively said I would be banned if I didn't attend.

Garrett · 6 Nov 2006 at 17:06

You didn't try and blag some travelling expenses off of them then?

Seriously though, 5 points and a fine is a pretty great result I think.

rare · 6 Nov 2006 at 17:06

Rather lucky I suppose! Did you have any points previously? How long did your summons take to come through.

Mr-White · 6 Nov 2006 at 17:06

110 all the way was it ?

MW

TripleT · 6 Nov 2006 at 18:04

Decent result.

I'm waiting on a possible letter for doing <95mph indicated (pretty sure I was under that so should just be a fixed penalty) on the m62

A week on wednesday and I can celebrate

laissez-faire · 8 Nov 2006 at 10:10

rare said:
Rather lucky I suppose! Did you have any points previously? How long did your summons take to come through.

NIP took 12 days from offence, Court summons took 5 months to come through! I was really wondering if they were ever going to send it!

Strange thing is that when I phoned up RAC to tell them about it there was no change to my premium!

laissez-faire · 8 Nov 2006 at 10:13

TripleT said:
Decent result.

I'm waiting on a possible letter for doing <95mph indicated (pretty sure I was under that so should just be a fixed penalty) on the m62 A week on wednesday and I can celebrate

Yeah you will be fine - 95mph is tops for fixed penalty I think, 96 is court. If it was 95 indicated you should have been a couple of MPH under that, then you have the cosine effect from the fact they take the reading from up on a bridge which you are not travelling directly towards etc. Plus they could have been locking on to some other guy, although it only takes 3 seconds to record the speed they have to spend about a minute filming the car to get close up shots of the driver.

Also I got done at 10:46am and they were saying in court how the guy began to operate at 10:30am !!! So he could have been setting up when you went by. Oh how I wish I had been speeding a bit more then I would have got past before he started!

MAPeX · 8 Nov 2006 at 10:20

laissez-faire said:
Yeah you will be fine - 95mph is tops for fixed penalty I think, 96 is court. If it was 95 indicated you should have been a couple of MPH under that, then you have the cosine effect from the fact they take the reading from up on a bridge which you are not travelling directly towards etc. Plus they could have been locking on to some other guy, although it only takes 3 seconds to record the speed they have to spend about a minute filming the car to get close up shots of the driver.

Also I got done at 10:46am and they were saying in court how the guy began to operate at 10:30am !!! So he could have been setting up when you went by. Oh how I wish I had been speeding a bit more then I would have got past before he started!

I was caught doing 97 on the M5 and i was just given 3 points and £60 fine. Think it depends on the discretion of the cop

Dogbreath · 8 Nov 2006 at 10:35

silversurfer said:
They use tripods?

And how do they aim them? 1 degree of movement at the gun at that range and the laser will be sweeping over 17 meters. t's simply not possible to get a reliable speed reading at those distances, which is why the ACPO Code of Practice states the following:

ACPO Code of Practive for Operations Use of Road Policing Enforcement Technology said:
Section 14.3
"Hand-held devices are capable of measuring vehicle speeds from a minimum range of 50 feet to a maximum of 2,000 feet and recording speeds from a minimum of 5mph to a maximum of 155mph. Operators should avoid carrying out measurements for enforcement purposes at the extremity of the measurement field."

Perhaps my calculator is broken, but i make 2000 feet to be considerably less than 1km.

jimblowscash · 8 Nov 2006 at 11:08

please please ring them before deciding not to turn up, im pretty sure that failure to attend court after bieng served a summonds is an offence in its self and will lead you to bigger plies of poo than your allready in>>>> :eek:

alexthecheese · 8 Nov 2006 at 11:10

2000ft = a notch over 600metres.