Arrest warrant

[sandstone]

Our daughter and son in law told us over the weekend that they had a legal problem and thought immediately of this forum.

I asked that they gave me a summary to post - this follows:

Wednesday 4th Jan 2017 -got home in the evening and had received a note through door from HM Courts and Tribunal service saying a warrant was outstanding for my arrest relating to our car, and that a fine was due for £811 (thoughit didn't say what the alleged offence was).

No reply from the phone number on the card, so I rang again the next morning to find out what this related to, as was the first I had heard of any offence/ fine etc and I had no idea what it was about.

Spoke to someone who advised the offence was a speeding one where our car had been caught on a speed camera doing 37 in a 30 zone on Wednesday 2nd December 2015, and that a letter had been sent out asking me to confirm I had been driving, which had not been replied to - this had then led to a court date which had not been attended, and I had apparently been given a fine and 6 penalty points, with the arrest warrant relating to the outstanding fine. This was the first I had heard of any of this, so I was advised to go into Leeds Magistrates court asap to try sort it out.

I attended Leeds Magistrates court the same afternoon (Thursday 5th Jan), and explained that I had not been aware of any of the above until the previous evening. I advised we had moved house in May 2015, but it seems all documents had been sent to our old address ( 6 month redirection had ended by this time).
When we moved we had updated our address on our driving licenses straight away, but had forgotten to update the logbook (this had been realised the following May (2016) and had been updated then.) , so we were not aware of any of the notices that had been sent.

The judges at Leeds Magistrates court were happy that this was all true, and got me to sign a statutory declaration which confirmed I had only found out about the case on 4/1/17. They advised the fine and the 6 points would be removed from my records, and I would then need to re-present for the original speeding charge.

Upon representing for the original charge (still the same day, at Leeds Magistrates Court), I was asked how I would like to plead.
I advised that if I could see the evidence of the offence (ie: a photo), I would hold my hands up and accept the charge, however, as I had only just been told of it, and had not actually seen any evidence and was completely unaware of having committed an offence, I would like to see the evidence before doing so. The Leeds Court contacted Bradford Magistrates Court (where the original charge was brought) to request any relevant info to be sent across - however after about half an hour we were advised they were struggling to find it, and that they would adjourn the case to be reheard at Bradford on 7th February, and would try to send me the details in the meantime.

I have not received any further information or evidence yet, and currently, do not feel I am in a position to make a guilty plea, due to the following reasons:

I am completely unaware of committing any offence.
Speeding is not in keeping with my normal driving style - I have been driving for 9 years with not a single motoring conviction.
I have not been presented with any evidence of the offence, other than being told I was charged with it over a year ago - surely a photo should exist, or records be held if the case was still open?
There is also some doubt over whether it was me/wife driving - at that time, my wife was on maternity leave and had the car on weekdays, so potentially I wasn't actually driving anyway.

If I turn up to court on 7th Feb, I'm looking to get advice on how I should play it - if evidence exists of the offence and can be shown to me, I would obviously take responsibility, however, if nothing can still be presented to me a month later after asking, I don't feel there is sufficient grounds for me to plead guilty, as I don't really believe I was speeding!

However, I'm not sure if I was to plead not guilty, whether I could then be blamed for not having updated the logbook on time, and therefore be charged anyway due to this (although it was a genuine oversight, and was updated from May 2016 - 8 months prior to this all coming to light) even with no evidence?

Any advice appreciated!!!!


Thanks everyone - I would have thought evidence of the crime would be needed but I don't feel confident in giving advice.

[Clitheroekid]

The first thing to say is that I don't practise in criminal law, so I have no specialist knowledge. However. you seem to have done the right thing so far. There clearly is some doubt as to whether you actually committed the offence, and you should never plead guilty just to get it over with, or as a matter of convenience.

It's now not long to 7 February, and you will need an opportunity to consider whatever evidence they have and, if appropriate, seek legal advice. It would therefore certainly not be acceptable for them to present you with the evidence on the day of the hearing.

If I were you I would contact the prosecution office that's dealing with it (in writing) and say that it's now nearly 3 weeks since the court was told to send you the evidence but you still haven't received it. Make the point that you will need sufficient time to consider the evidence and obtain legal advice, and that you therefore want them to further adjourn the hearing on 7 February and not to relist it until after the evidence has been provided to you.

With any luck - and assuming the criminal court system is as completely shambolic as the civil court system - they will have lost the evidence, in which case they would have to drop the case.

[sandstone]

CK - you are a hero as usual and thanks for the guidance. If I could, I would send you more than one rec - but hope this reply will do?

Thanks again.

[melonfool]

Sandstone - what a sensible chap your son in law is!

Mel

[Clitheroekid]

I've been giving this some further thought. Rather than asking the prosecution for an adjournment it might be worth saying to the prosecution that you've waited long enough, and that it's unfair to leave this dangling over your head, so that you want the matter to be dealt with at the hearing on 7 February.

Tell them that if they haven't provided you with all their evidence at least 5 working days before that date you will be asking the court to dismiss the charge.

After all, the worst that can happen is that the court will just adjourn it anyway. If you put the prosecution under pressure there's an (admittedly outside) chance that they may take the view it's just too much hassle and drop the proceedings before or at the hearing.

[sandstone]

Thanks CK. I passed this on yesterday afternoon but apparently the letter had already been posted in the morning. So we are going with plan A!

You are right melonfool he is sensible.