What to do if you have been convicted of an offence without knowing about the proceedings?

Where an offence is committed, it can lead to a significant delay before the proceedings are started. As an aside, it’s very important to be aware that the prosecution must start proceedings within 6 months of the date of commission of minor offences. Due to the delay, this can mean that people move house or they simply don’t receive any notice of the proceedings.

This means that a case can start and proceed through trial and even sentence without someone even being aware an offence has been alleged. For some, the first time they hear about it is when they receive a notice of financial penalty.

There are a number of options as to what can be done if this happens.

Make a Statutory Declaration

The first option is to make a statutory declaration. This is a sworn statement that you did not know about the hearing. Under the Statutory Declarations Act 1835, the defendant's declaration can be made before anyone who is authorised by law to hear it (e.g. a solicitor), or before any Justice of the Peace (a magistrate or District Judge (Magistrates' Courts). The person who hears the declaration need not enquire into the truth of it.

You must give your completed declaration to the court within 21 days of finding out about your case. If you want to give a declaration after 21 days, you’ll have to ask the court if they’ll accept it.

Once the statutory declaration has been made, the case is reset and essentially starts again.

Apply to Re-Open the Proceedings

Alternatively, if you were not told about a hearing, you can apply to the Magistrates Court to re-open the proceedings under Section 142 of the Magistrates Court Act 1980. The test is whether or not it is in the interests of justice to re-open proceedings. This will normally be where the Court has not taken into account information or there has been an error of law.

There is a great deal of case law which identifies that this must relate to a mistake made by the Court, but this can extend to information which was not available to the Court at the time the decision was made.

Appeal to the Crown Court

There is an automatic right of appeal to the Crown Court from the Magistrates Court. This simply requires that the requisite appeal form is completed and served on the court within 15 working days.

In certain circumstances, the Crown Court may extend the period of time to apply to re-open the proceedings.

In summary, all is not lost if a case has happened in your absence, there are various steps which you can take in order to fight the case. Having expert legal representation can make the exercise far easier.