Pregnancy - speeding ticket excuse?

[dantray01]

Hello,

After seven years of having a clean licence, my wife (7 months pregnant) has landed two speeding tickets in two days on different routes.

She has said that she was bursting for the toilet - obviously this is a very thin excuse but would there be any kind of lenience allowed for a pregnant woman?

If not based on this, does anyone know of any similar cases that have tried this and been successful?

Thanks in advance.
Dan.

[alid5]

Dont know about getting away with speeding, but there is an old law that a pregnant woman can pee in a policeman's helmet :D

[Prudie]

There was also the guy caught for speeding and his excuse was ' I'm really low on petrol so I had to rush to the garage before I ran out'

[Lynnzer]

In case you don't get around to visiting Pepipoo, what you need to do is to get a Newton Hearing. This allows you to admit guilt but lays down mitigating circumstances that a magistrate may allow and either use to make no penalty or to give a reduced penalty as they see fit.
Just pleading not guilty won't work since the speeding did take place, and at a proper magistrates trial they won't generally have much freedom to reduce the penalty for any mitigating circumstances at that time.
If you do get a Newton Hearing then with any luck it'll be a lady magistrate who hears it, who may well empathise with the pregnancy problem.

[New Judge]

Newton hearings do not deal with mitigation, Lynnzer. They are held to establish the facts of the offence where the offence is admitted but the facts are in dispute, and where the facts would have a material effect on the sentence.

To stick to the offence of speeding, as it is the subject of dantray’s question, a Newton hearing would be necessary if a guilty plea was entered but:

(a) the prosecution alleges a speed of (say) 105mph in a 70mph zone (guideline sentence a fine of a week’s net income and either six points or 56 days disqualification)

(b) the driver maintains that the speed was 85mph (guideline sentence half a week’s net income and three points).

The Newton hearing would hear from the witnesses and the Magistrates would decide which version of events they prefer.

The “Alex Fergusson” defence mentioned is a submission made to suggest that “Special Reasons” existed so that the normal penalties should either be reduced or not imposed at all. My own view is that dantray’s wife is unlikely to succeed once with this argument, and certainly not twice.