Received a ticket?
If you have been caught on camera, either for speeding or, whilst driving, using a mobile telephone or not wearing a seat belt, the images of your offence are uploaded to Kent Police HQ in Maidstone.
The images are studied to verify that an offence has been committed and the vehicle registration details have been recorded. The registration number is logged on a central computer which, if you are the registered keeper of the vehicle, will produce your name and address.
Notice of Intended Prosecution
A Notice of Intended Prosecution form is sent to the registered keeper within 14 days of the offence. The form asks if you were the driver of the vehicle and gives you the opportunity to say whether it was someone else driving, if it was a hire vehicle or the vehicle was owned by someone else at the time of the offence. If it was any of these, a new Notice of Intended Prosecution will be issued to the person you have identified. Please note; this does not have to happen within 14 days of the offence.
Conditional Offer of a Fixed Penalty
A Conditional Offer of a Fixed Penalty form may also be enclosed. This offers you the chance to pay a £100 fixed penalty fine and have your licence endorsed with 3 penalty points instead of going to court. You may wish to contest the allegation at court, which is your right. However, if magistrates find you guilty you may have to pay court costs of several hundred pounds, plus up to the maximum penalty of £1,000 and receive additional penalty points on your licence.
You may be offered a Speed Awareness Course as an educational alternative to points and a fine. This costs £85 and your licence will not be endorsed with points. For more information on the course, go to the Kent County Council website.
If your licence already has 9 points and/or your speed was excessive, you will not receive a Conditional Offer of a Fixed Penalty. Instead a file will be prepared and your case will be dealt with directly by the Magistrates’ Court.
Fixed Penalties & Speed Awareness courses
In relation to the fixed penalties, the fines are paid directly to the government, however if the speeding detected qualifies the individual to be offered a speed awareness course & providing they are eligible; the course fees pay for the cost of the training venue, the trainers who deliver the course and course materials. Kent Police do receive a small surplus per candidate and this money is invested back into road safety initiatives to improve road safety across Kent & Medway.
In 2019/2020 approximately 52% of speeding offences (21,465 in 2019 /2020) were processed through the National Driver Offender Rehabilitation Scheme. The drivers involved pay a fixed fee to the course organisers and part of this is returned to Kent Police. This is used predominately to fund the administration costs of processing the scheme, but a small amount is used to fund both national and local operations connected with road safety which include; tyre safety, speed, seatbelt & mobile phone, drink and drug drive, Project EDWARD (European Day Without a Road Death), BRAKE Road Safety campaigns and HGV enforcement.