No Fixed Charge Notice = Case Must Be Dropped
Before taking you to court for a fixed charge offence, the authority must first have sent you a Fixed Charge Notice (FCN). If you end up facing court proceedings without ever having received an FCN — for example because it was posted to an old address, came back undelivered, or was never sent at all — the case against you cannot lawfully go ahead. This is not a technicality you have to raise yourself: the requirement to serve an FCN before prosecuting is a hard rule, and you are entitled to ask the authority to prove they actually served one on you.
Legal basis
Road Traffic Act 2010 s.35(2) (no prosecution without prior FCN service); s.35 (methods of service: personally or by post to the address on the vehicle register).
How to identify this in your case
You received a court summons but no FCN, or the FCN was sent to the wrong address (e.g. you moved and notified NDLS), or the council can't produce a posting receipt or Track & Trace record.
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