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#Post#: 86827--------------------------------------------------
Unsigned NIP in Scotland
By: star-zone-20 Date: August 22, 2025, 12:25 pm
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I've been looking for pedipoo as I used that back in 2018 with
success doing the unsigned NIP in Scotland. It seems it's now
gone and this is the go to for such topics.
I'm planning to repeat what I did in 2018 but just want to make
sure I'm doing everything in the correct order.
Date of Offence: 18/06/25
Date of Issue: 16/07/25
(I believe this delay is related to me forgetting to update my
V5 and tax then I moved address)
I filled in the NIP but returned it unsigned within 28 days, I
then received it back with the signature and date area
highlighted, dated 13/08/25 requesting for it to be signed and
dated. I planned to wait 28 days again and send it again but I
have since received another.
Date of Issue 18/08/25
Date of Offence: 18/06/25 (same offence)
Informing me the 28 days has now elapsed and no response has
been received bu the office. (untrue due to the other letter
dated 13/08/25) and requesting I return and sign the new NIP
IMMEDIATELY.
Should I wait 28 days as planned and resend the previous or
should I respond with the new one at once?
I am expecting to have a knock at the door which I intend to
ignore but just trying to spin it out as long as possible as I
believe after 6 months I should be clear?
#Post#: 86864--------------------------------------------------
Re: Unsigned NIP in Scotland
By: andy_foster Date: August 23, 2025, 4:06 am
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Don't know, don't care.
This is not a precise process. The advantage of stringing them
along is the possibility of timing out the offence - them
continuing this silly dance until it is too late to instigate
court proceedings. Clearly not going to happen.
The fact that you have received a reminder out of the sequence
you were expecting at most means that court proceedings might be
instigated sooner than you were expecting, or that the polis
might start lurking in your garden sooner than you were
expecting.
Case law (Scottish) tells us that (for the purposes of
instigating proceedings at least) there is only one s. 172
offence committed (if it is committed at all), and that is
committed at the expiration of the original 28 days. Subsequent
reminders are nothing more than a kind offer to "undo" the
offence by complying with the requirements out of time.
The fact that the template letter says "no response", rather
than "no acceptable response" is neither here nor there - beyond
showing the level of diligence and intelligence being expended
upon this matter.
The 6 months for any s. 172 offence is committed at the
expiration of the 27 days from (28 days beginning with) the date
of service of the original notice to that person (which in E&W
is deemed to be 2 working days after posting).
Where your case potentially differs from the standard unsigned
case in Scotland, is that you [presumably] utterly failed to
respond to the original notice sent to your previous address. If
they were to expend any diligence or intelligence on this case,
that would seem to be a slam dunk easy win for them if it were
to go to contested trial. In E&W it could be argued that
prosecuting for the original failure if a subsequent reminder
was complied with would be an abuse of process. However, this
would leave the question of whether incomplete compliance with
the stated requirement was sufficient to render the prosecution
an abuse, and as I understand it, abuse of process isn't a thing
north of the border.
#Post#: 86869--------------------------------------------------
Re: Unsigned NIP in Scotland
By: NewJudge Date: August 23, 2025, 4:54 am
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I think a lot depends on what happened in the four weeks before
you received your NIP.
If the police served a NIP and a s172 request on you at your
last known address (which you failed to update) they have done
all they need to do. There is no requirement for them to send
reminders or to trace where you now live. They can prosecute you
for failing to respond to that s172 request and you have no
defence to it.
As Andy says, whether the police will be intelligent enough to
realise that what has happened since the original 28 days
expired is really irrelevant, is a chance you will have to take.
But if they sent a s172 request to your last known address and
you did not respond to it in time, you had already committed the
offence by the time you received their reminder (or roughly by
then).
You will have to rely on them believing that the second request
(to which you responded - in their view - improperly) is the
one which matters. And it isn't.
#Post#: 86906--------------------------------------------------
Re: Unsigned NIP in Scotland
By: star-zone-20 Date: August 23, 2025, 8:43 am
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Thanks for taking time to respond.
Ahhh, I never thought about the first NIP. :-\
So does that mean I have messed it up? or does the same formula
"work" in theory?
Is there no point in me returning any more of these unsigned
then?
#Post#: 86913--------------------------------------------------
Re: Unsigned NIP in Scotland
By: andy_foster Date: August 23, 2025, 9:46 am
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You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'
Well, do ya, punk?
If they treat it as a simple unsigned case, they will probably
d*ck you around as much as they can until the start of the trial
and then drop the case if you don't blink first. If they pick up
on the fact that the first notice sent to your last known
address as RK was not responded to, not so much.
The only advantage I can see in playing the merry dance of
returning each reminder unsigned, is the possibility that their
system links the s. 172 offence date to the date of the first
notice sent to your current address, and the actual s. 172
offence times out - which would seem unlikely as they tend to
dual charge with with speeding offence which would time out a
month or more earlier.
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