We’ve just had this penalty charge notice sent in from a Member.

She stands accused of stopping in a Box Junction.

But..

Wait until you see the pictures:

As you can clearly(ish) see, she has not actually stopped in the Box Junction at all!

It just goes to show that you should ALWAYS challenge these penalty notices because often they are simply wrong.

Happy motoring,

Adam

Bit of a long newsletter this week, but I think you’ll like it, and you just might sleep a little better at night by knowing this…

When you get a Speeding Ticket, most people think that there is only one of three things that can happen:

1) You accept the points and fine;
2) You fight it (either pre-court or at court) and win;
3) You fight it and loose.

However, there is a fourth VERY IMPORTANT possibility:

4) You accept that the alleged offence happened and plead Mitigation.

What does this mean?

Many people inadvertently incriminate themselves before speaking to a Lawyer. This is one of our Lawyer Matthews pet hates, and it’s why we always ask DriveProtect Members to contact us the moment they receive a speeding ticket.

On another occasion, you might not actually want to contest that the alleged offence happened, but points on your licence would mean a ban due to the totting up process.

In these cases, your strategy should be Mitigation!

Here’s how it works:

Simply, you persuade the magistrates or District Judge (DJ) that you are a jolly decent chap (or lady) and that giving you a harsh sentence would not really be in the public interest.

Instead a little slap on the wrist should be just fine.

I’ve seen this in action and heard stories many times and it’s also worked wonderfully for me personally in the past (not on a speeding case but something else), as I mention below.

Imagine a 1 week ban and a £60 fine compared to a 6 month ban and a £775 fine.

These were two real cases in which the people involved had committed basically the same offence.

In one case the gentleman went in with an attitude of “screw you!”, and in the other the Lawyer talked to the Magistrates about how the man was an upstanding citizen, had done this charity work, belonged to that club and so on.

It reminded me of the time I first met our Lawyer Matthew.

He was representing me in a personal matter that I won’t bore you with, but was quite serious. He told the Magistrates about how I owned Talex and it was sold in Halfords (at the time), how I had seen someone get stabbed the week before and called an ambulance and so on.

Everything he told them was true but the point is that they lapped it up.

“Oh, he’s not an oike, no need to punish him too much”.

Whether this attitude is right of wrong is irrelevant.

The important fact is that *it works*!

So if you’ve dropped yourself in it, or are facing a ban, fear not. The success rate with Mitigation is really high

And if you’re a Member at DriveProtect at the time of the alleged offence, it costs virtually nothing to be represented by us at Court.

All the best,

Adam
P.S. If you’ve got questions about DriveProtect you can request a call back from the Membership Team here.

I just received this email from Jim Henderson, who is a DriveProtect Member:

Mr James henderson
(Address removed for privacy)

To whom it may concern

I spend a lot of time on the road in my capacity as a courier / driver, I enjoy my work and I really like being out on the road, but like most people, there are other things to look out for apart from other drivers and pedestrians. By this I mean speed cameras, speed traps, average speed limits and police cars!

I’d already picked up a few points in the beginning of the year by flouting the limit in a section of roadworks.

After I got stopped, I decided to become pro-active and installed a sat nav with live traffic and speed trap updates.

However, I was still concerned about gettin stopped if I took my mind off the ball.

This is when I first came accross the drive protect website.

At first, i was sceptical.

The advertising looked good, the service provided looked even better but I still wasn’t convinced.

Then back in may, i had another close call and decided to try drive protects services. What could I lose, except a small monthly payment for peace of mind?

Upon contacting drive protect I was asked to provide details of my licence, driving history ect and all seemed reasonable. I duly set up the direct debit for the payments and forgot about it.

Later in the year I got stopped again. This time I received a lot more points than I expected, then almost a month later I was stopped once again. Every time by a covert speed camera held by an officer parked somewhere obscure.

Now if I had seen a bright yellow jacket I would have been looking at my speed, sometimes just the sight of a police car is enought o get most drivers to slow back down to 70!

By the time I had seen the police car it was too late. I was duly booked and processed.

i got straight on to drive protect.

This was much easier than I expected, I was advised to be represented in court by drive protects own legal team. I went to court and met with my brief. She was very knowledgeable and confident and did a sterling job even though as it turned out the magistrate had already made his mind up what to do.

So I got banned.

This is when I was convinced that there would be some loophole or reason not to cover me.

Not so!

Immediately I was told, after checking a few details, that I would be covered for all my transport costs.

Still doubtful, I collected all my train tickets and taxi reciepts and posted them near the end if the month. Within a day, I received an email confirming that my receipts had been received and that my bank would be credited accordingly!

I’m still amazed.

This company really does look after its customers. Pain free registration, super friendly staff and meticulous attention to detail make these guys the ones you need on your side if you drive. So that’s most of us!

At last, a way of covering yourself against losing your licence.

I can wholeheartedly reccomend drive protect if you want to make sure your life isn’t turned upside down by this country’s ridiculous points system.

Jim Henderson

Sent from my iPad