It's so easy to speed in a modern car without noticing it so how can you get out of a speeding ticket if you've been unlucky enough to get done during a momentary lapse of concentration. The road was clear, the radio was chatting away and you just had not noticed that you'd slipped over the speed limit.
Unless you¡¯re absolutely paranoid about your speed all the time then there's a good chance that you've gone above the speed limit. Not necessarily intentionally. On some roads it's almost impossible to actually stay at the speed limit – you'd be on the inside lane of the motorway, being tailgated by someone until they got half a chance to overtake. Even town roads – except they have speed bumps every few yards – often make it difficult to keep to the limit.
Speed cameras are provided to be positioned in places where excessive speed would be dangerous. Sometimes they are. Other times, they're a few paces inside a change in speed limit and – for whatever reason – you have not slowed down from 40 to 30 in time.
Flash! You're caught speeding!
So, is it possible to get out of a speeding ticket summons?
Because speeding incurs both a fine and points on your driving license, there are a number of rules that the permissions have to abide by when they issue a speeding ticket.
They only have a set amount of time to issue the penalty notice. But they do not have to send it by recorded delivery, so if it does not arrive with you that's no excuse. The Royal Mail does not have a 100% success record delivering letters but if non-delivery of the original speeding ticket notice was an excuse to get out of a speeding ticket, some unscrupulous drivers would simply claim the letter had not arrived. So the actual date on the letter that gets sent has to be outside the statutory limit.
The claim that you do not know who was driving is a difficult one to establish. The main loophole of "I have not got a clue" was closed a few years ago after the high profile case of the Hamiltons.
Checking the calibration of the Gazzo that took the photo is possible if you're able to get the photos from the relevant police force and the offense took place close enough to your home to allow you to go back with a tape measure.
If it was a hand-held speeding gun then there should be records to prove when it was last calibrated and there are other things to take into consideration with this kind of device if you are to stand a chance to get out of a speeding ticket.
And if the speeding ticket claims an impossible speed for your car then you should also be able to call the accuracy of the speed camera into question.
