He Beat His Speeding Charge in Court — and Still Ended Up Thousands Out of Pocket

• Broadcaster Iain Dale’s A20 speeding case was thrown out after the key police witness failed to appear in court — twice.
• The judge dismissed the case and awarded him costs. He was still left out of pocket, because acquitted Drivers can only claim back costs at legal aid rates.
• Which means in Britain, you can be wrongly prosecuted, win completely, and still pay for the privilege.

Imagine being prosecuted for speeding, fighting the case, and winning — totally, unambiguously winning, with the judge dismissing the charge and awarding costs in your favour.

Now imagine opening your solicitor’s final invoice and realising you’re still thousands of pounds down.

That’s exactly what happened to broadcaster Iain Dale after his case on the A20 in Kent collapsed. And the reason it happened to him is a quirk of the system that applies to every single Motorist in England and Wales.

The Witness Who Never Showed Up

Dale was one of thousands of Drivers caught on the A20 after the limit was slashed from 70mph to 40mph — a stretch where, back in 2024, one defence solicitor estimated as many as 62,000 offences may have been committed in just six weeks, and where even the Met accepted a rogue 50mph sign had been displayed by an unauthorised party.

Rather than accept the penalty, Dale took his case to trial. What followed says a great deal about how these prosecutions are actually run.

At the first hearing, the police officer his defence needed to cross-examine — PC Goodwin — simply didn’t appear, and the case was adjourned. At the second hearing, Goodwin failed to show again, this time for a personal reason that couldn’t be disclosed. A second officer, prosecution witness PC Coomber, didn’t turn up either. The CPS said she’d been double-booked at another court, then changed its story: she’d picked up the wrong file and got the wrong day.

A last-ditch attempt to bring her in by video link failed when the laptop wouldn’t cooperate. The increasingly irritated judge gave the prosecutor one minute to establish the connection, then asked the CPS what evidence it was offering. The answer: none. Case dismissed.

Winning Costs Money. A Lot of It.

Here’s where the story turns from farce to something more serious.

Dale was awarded costs — the Court’s acknowledgement that he should never have been put through it. But in England and Wales, an acquitted defendant who paid for their own lawyers can generally only recover costs at legal aid rates, which sit far below what specialist legal representation actually costs.

As Dale himself put it, he could only claim back the equivalent of legal aid, so he would still be well out of pocket — despite winning everything.

Read that again. The prosecution’s witnesses failed to attend twice. The CPS offered no evidence. The case was dismissed. And the innocent party still ends up paying a four-figure bill for the privilege of clearing his own name.

For a well-known broadcaster, that’s an infuriating expense. For an ordinary Driver on an ordinary wage, it’s something far worse: a reason not to fight at all.

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The Quiet Pressure to Plead Guilty

This is the part of the system nobody advertises. When challenging a charge costs thousands of pounds win or lose, most Drivers do the arithmetic and take the points — even Drivers with genuinely winnable cases, like the hundreds caught out by the A20’s chaotic signage.

One of them, Jamie Foster, racked up 12 points in seven days on that same stretch and was facing a six-month totting ban. Because the inadequate signage was properly argued in Court, magistrates cut it to a 28-day ban instead. The cases can be fought, and the arguments do work.

The barrier was never the law. It’s the bill.

Removing the Bill From the Equation

This is precisely the problem DriveProtect™ was built to fix. When your legal help costs a fraction of the normal price, the decision to challenge a flawed prosecution stops being a financial gamble and becomes what it always should have been: a straightforward question of whether the case against you stacks up.

Members with a NIP or a court date get direct access to a specialist Speeding Solicitor who reviews the case and advises them exactly what to respond — without the four-figure invoices that make winning feel like losing.

Got a NIP or points on your licence right now? See how DriveProtect Membership works — a specialist Speeding Solicitor in your corner from £25/month.