Legal experts - traffic offence

imposter2.0

Worth a try, so here goes...

4th Sept - zapped by a radar gun and pulled over for 52 in a 40. No argument from me. Clean licence, so accepted the offer of a speed awareness course.
8th Dec (ie today) - letter finally arrives in the post, stating that I need to book & attend said course by 4th Jan (ie within four months of date of offence).

The only available course date in the vicinity before the deadline is this Thursday(!), and I simply cannot make that date. The other courses are either full, or after the deadline date.

I would argue that two days is hardly a fair notice period, especially given that it has been over three months since I was pulled over and they have had ample time to get this sorted before now.

What's the options?

MountainMonster

Have you called them and asked what can be done, considering you just got the letter? What date is on the letter as being sent. If they have left it that long then they should work around you.

team47b

Ring them on Thursday saying you have just received their letter see what they say...

imposter2.0

Haven't called them yet as I didn't see the letter until I got home tonight. Letter is dated 3/12, but the envelope is postmarked 5/12.

VTech

team47b wrote:

Ring them on Thursday saying you have just received their letter see what they say...

+1

They will be fine and its not like they can argue a case for letters arriving on time given the time of year.

Sirius631

VTech wrote:

team47b wrote:

Ring them on Thursday saying you have just received their letter see what they say...

+1

They will be fine and its not like they can argue a case for letters arriving on time given the time of year.

But it was totally in their power to post it sooner.

imposter2.0

Update - I eventually got through to them on the phone the day after (took a while though). They asked me if other courses after the deadline date were available on the screen - to which I said yes, but I assumed these were not options for me, as they are after the deadline?

The answer, apparently, is that you can book onto any courses that are displayed to you, once you have logged in with your licence details - so in effect, they have given me an extension which acknowledges that the letter was sent out incredibly late. So now booked onto a course in mid-Jan.

VTech

Good result and a fair outcome.
I agree that laws need to be abided but I also think that such matters can and should be dealt with according to circumstance and banning or giving points to people where hardship will occur as a result is a double negative.

Hope it goes well.