Driving Offence — Intended Prosecution

cwhaley

cwhaley

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Regrettably, I have been served a notice of intended prosecution for blocking an overtake.

I’ll admit I’m in the wrong and I’m prepared to face the consequences, however I’d like to get an idea of what they may be. The letter from the police states driving “dangerously, carelessly or without care and attention”. It does state the matter may not lead to court if it’s deemed by the police not to progress further.

In short a car (with a dash cam) appeared suddenly at my rear, very close. He stayed there and then attempted to overtake. I saw red and moved out to stop it. He then pulled back in and sat very close with his main beam on.

I know, I know, it was wrong. It must be noted that there were no other drivers on the opposing side of the road and that further ahead of us was traffic. The limit for the road was 60mph and I was doing less than that.

Anybody able to put me out my misery and let me know what the worse is? I’m a married father so a little worried and embarrassed. I have a clean license of 16 years.

☹️
 
Oer. What options do you have with respect to responding to their letter ?

Dangerous driving could be 6 points iirc and your insurance will get loaded
 
Murdochcat said:
Oer. What options do you have with respect to responding to their letter ?

Dangerous driving could be 6 points iirc and your insurance will get loaded
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The letter is a notice of intended prosecution and is an application for my name and address. It says failure to comply with the request within 28 days may lead to proceedings being taken against me.

I have to confirm I was driving and my basic details. It also offers a box to give my “side” of the story.
 
I can't see it being deemed dangerous driving https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/dangerous-driving/ so I'd think it would be
driving without due care https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.u...-without-due-care-and-attention-revised-2017/ which if you click on the tab will give you a rough guide of rough fines, I think you can also get just a FPN or offered a driver education course for this (I may be wrong or it may have changed) but I believe they can only ban you if they ask for you to appear in court so if you're not summoned to court then a ban is out. Years ago I had something mildly similar (I care not to go into details) but there was a website I found where individuals had listed their offence and what their points/fine was etc, I escaped a ban by the neck of my teeth and had to suck up to the judge in court. So reply with your plea and how you're normally a great driver and your history shows that and photos off google maps if helpful and a good description of how the other driver behaved/responded too (do that bit tonight or asap before you forget) or whatever you think might help, you could say you'd just had an argument with the missus for instance but bear in mind you might have to say all this to a judge. Squeaky bottom time, I just checked it took about 8 months for my case to go to court, £330 fine and 6 points (2016). Thinking about it and looking back at my plea letter I must have cribbed someone else's BS letter off the web and manipulated it a bit to suit me, I daresay there will be similar examples floating around the web nowadays.
 
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Dangerous driving, carelessly and without due care and attention cover a widish range of offences, so they haven't made up their mind. Tell them the truth which is said driver approached you at speed and aggressively tailgated you with full beam on, and blinded by his lights you moved over at the same time as him. Ask them to view the full footage and suggest they charge him with an offence of at least the same degree of seriousness.
 
blup said:
Tell them the truth which is said driver approached you at speed and aggressively tailgated you with full beam on, and blinded by his lights you moved over at the same time as him.
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That didn't happen, the dickhead behind did not use his full beam until the OP blocked him (not defending anyone), furthermore by the time the dickhead behind had turned his full beam on the OP had already committed the offence, he could have pulled over and let him pass but let's keep on topic, keeping @cwhaley out of jail.
 
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freddiemercurystwin said:
That didn't happen, the dickhead behind did not use his full beam until the OP blocked him (not defending anyone).
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Fair enough that was not how I read it, sometimes there's little difference between modern led lights on dip and old fashioned full beam.
 
For the record, I know I’m in the wrong and that my decision to prevent the overtake was foolish. I always just let these things play out, for some reason this just got to me. Worst of all it happened on my birthday..! The letter I’ve received states that I was reported for the “question of a prosecution to be considered”, in respect of driving a vehicle “dangerously, carelessly or without reasonable consideration”.

The car was a Tesla which so far as I know has five cameras.

I’ve written my side in the response form. In summary, I’ve said that the driver approached me at speed, tailgated me and - as I was fearful of their intent - I moved out as they moved out. Their bright LED lights were distracting and this was worsened when they switched from dipped to full beam. All of those events are true and their footage will show that. The journey after was very uneventful.

I know I’m in the wrong and don’t challenge it, but there is also wrongdoing on their side, too. All I can hope for is that proceedings do not follow.

If it’s points and a fine I can accept that. I’d struggle with a ban as I’d likely lose my job.
 
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