More on Speeding Penalties

I briefly touched on the penalties for speeding in my earlier speeding article.

As mentioned then, speeding is an offence under section 89(1) of the Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984. Speeding is an absolute offence. This means it is committed by the mere act of exceeding the speed limit, irrespective of the driver's intention or reasons why - in other words there is no mental element (mens rea) to the offence.

Although not a defence in law, a driver's reasons for speeding may amount to a special reason for the court to impose a lesser penalty than it ordinarily would. More about that in my article about special reasons.

There are several online communities purporting to offer free "advice" and support to drivers accused of speeding. Possibly the largest of those communities, a Facebook group called "Speeding tickets sorted. Avoid points From your licence" (sic), has just shy of 100,000 members, at least one of whom is also a reader of Magistrates' Blog. He has been in touch to raise a few concerns about the quality and accuracy of advice on offer.

It is exceptionally difficult to secure Legal Aid funding in relation to speeding offences. This means anyone requiring legal advice or representation will probably need to pay for it privately. That being the case any offer of free advice is always very popular, which is no doubt why the group has so many members.

What I would say is that anyone whose freedom, livelihood or reputation hinges on them achieving the best possible outcome in court, should always consult a professionally qualified lawyer. A professionally qualified lawyer, who is subject to regulation, is best placed to give them the honest, accurate and personalised legal advice that they require.

Trying to save a few quid by swotting up on social media could well end up costing more in the long run.

Anyway, back to the subject of speeding penalties.

The maximum penalty for speeding is a fine at level 3 (non-motorway offences) or level 4 (motorway offences). Level 3 is currently £1,000; level 4 is currently £2,500. These are the absolute maximum penalties that the law allows for speeding, so no-one can ever receive a penalty greater than that. This means that a person can never receive a community order or custodial sentence for speeding.

Speeding also attracts an obligatory licence endorsement and discretionary disqualification. This means that whenever a person is convicted of speeding the court must endorse their licence - even if that means no penalty points are added - and can choose to disqualify them from driving.

An important point, previously discussed on Magistrates' Blog, is that if the court imposes a discretionary disqualification then no points are added to the driver's licence.

The court consults the relevant sentencing guideline to determine the most appropriate sentence in the given circumstances. An excerpt from the speeding guideline is reproduced above. As you can see, the sentence depends on the extent to which the driver was exceeding the speed limit.

Looking at the bottom of the two central columns, you will see that the court sometimes has a choice as to whether to impose penalty points or a disqualification. There is no such thing as an automatic disqualification for speeding - it is entirely at the discretion of the court.

So what determines if the court imposes points or disqualification? It is entirely a matter for the court and either option is equally valid. From my point of view, I would be carefully considering both the circumstances of the offence and the driver's record.

To quote from my earlier article: "If the offender had a good driving record, and in the absence of aggravating factors, it would probably be more appropriate to impose penalty points instead of a disqualification. If, however, the offender had a poor driving record, or there were significant aggravating factors, then it might be more appropriate to impose a disqualification instead of penalty points.

"The court should be mindful of any active penalty points on the offender's licence at the time of the offence. A driver with 10 penalty points on their licence, who has already demonstrated their disregard for the rules of the road, may well be grateful if the court imposed a 28 day disqualification instead of penalty points. That is because if the driver were to receive 4 to 6 penalty points, as recommended by the sentencing guideline, it would result in their disqualification for a minimum of 6 months under the totting up rule."

Further reading:

Traffic Law in England, Wales and Scotland (aff. link), by K. M. Hughes.