What happens if you get caught speeding

The paperwork, and the two deadlines

The first thing that arrives is a notice of intended prosecution, which must be served on the registered keeper within fourteen days of the offence. It arrives alongside a request under section 172 of the Road Traffic Act asking who was driving.

That form has to be returned within twenty eight days. It is the single most important deadline in the whole process, because failing to give the information is itself an offence and it carries six points rather than three, and a much larger fine.

The form asks a question of fact and it is not the place to argue about the speed. Name the driver, return it on time, and make any argument about the offence itself at the next stage.

• Notice of intended prosecution: served within 14 days of the offence.
• Section 172 form naming the driver: returned within 28 days.
• Failing to name the driver: 6 points and a larger fine than the speeding.

Three outcomes, and what decides between them

The National Police Chiefs' Council publishes a table of thresholds by speed limit which forces work to. It is guidance to chief officers rather than law, and every chief constable may set local policy, but it describes what usually happens.

Below the threshold for the limit, no action is normally taken. Between the threshold and an upper figure a speed awareness course may be offered. Above that a fixed penalty of £100 and three points is the usual disposal, and above a further figure every case is sent to court.

The thresholds are absolute mph figures rather than a formula, though they happen to reproduce the limit plus ten per cent plus two, and the limit plus ten per cent plus nine, at all six national limits. Neither number is a legal allowance, and nothing stops a force prosecuting a speed below either.

The speed awareness course

A course is a diversion from prosecution, not an entitlement. The guidance is explicit that a driver has no automatic right to one however low the offending speed was, and the offer is at the discretion of the enforcing force.

There is one hard rule alongside the discretion: anybody who has attended a course in the previous three years is not eligible. A second offence inside that window goes to a fixed penalty or a court regardless of the speed.

The advantage of a course is that no points are added and no conviction is recorded, which matters for insurance for the following five years. You pay for the course, and the fee is set by the provider rather than nationally.

• Offered at the force's discretion, never as a right.
• Not available if you attended a course in the previous three years.
• No penalty points and no conviction, in exchange for the course fee.

If it goes to court

In a magistrates' court the sentence comes from the Sentencing Council speeding guideline, which bands the recorded speed against the limit. Band A is the smallest excess, band C the largest, and each band sets a fine as a percentage of relevant weekly income.

Band A starts at fifty per cent of weekly income and carries three points. Band B starts at one hundred per cent and carries either four to six points or a disqualification of seven to twenty eight days. Band C starts at one hundred and fifty per cent and carries six points or a disqualification of seven to fifty six days.

The fine is capped at one thousand pounds, and at two thousand five hundred pounds where the offence was on a motorway, because a motorway case is prosecuted under a different section with a higher maximum. Where a driver is grossly in excess of the limit the guideline tells the court to consider a ban longer than fifty six days.

Points, insurance and the twelve point rule

A speeding endorsement is code SP30 in most cases, and it stays on the driving record for four years from the date of the offence. It is treated as valid, meaning a court can count it against you, for the first three of those.

Insurers can see the endorsement for the whole four years and will price it. One SP30 usually costs a modest increase, and the real damage begins with a second one, because it changes what an insurer believes about the risk rather than adding a fixed loading.

Twelve points inside three years means the court must disqualify for at least six months unless it is satisfied there are grounds to mitigate. The only argument that reaches that is exceptional hardship, and the legislation excludes ordinary hardship, excludes any argument that the offence was not serious, and stops the same grounds being used twice inside three years.

• SP30 endorsement: 3 to 6 points, on the record for 4 years from the offence.
• 12 points inside 3 years: a minimum 6 month disqualification.
• New drivers: 6 points inside 2 years of a first pass revokes the licence entirely.

A guilty plea, and what it does not reduce

Pleading guilty at the first opportunity reduces the fine, on the sliding scale the reduction guideline sets out. That is a real saving and it is worth having where the offence is not in dispute.

It does not reduce a disqualification. The reduction guideline applies to the substantive sentence and states in terms that it has no impact on ancillary orders, which includes an order of disqualification from driving.

It also does not reduce the points, because points are not a sentence the court is discounting. They are the statutory consequence of the endorsement, and the court sets them inside the range the guideline gives.