Your Honour, I Plead Guilty 法官大人，我認罪

A notice from the Metropolitan Police was received week ago. I was formally charged with an offence.

The story happened last Novemeber when I was returning to Kingston from M25. At a junction somewhere near Chessington, I failed to comply with the red light traffic signal.

As a good driver, I only had one similar offence for the past 30+ years of road experience. Other than the fine, a 3-mark penalty was also imposed on me. Anyway, it was hard to believe that I failed to observe the red light while crossing the junction.

Shortly after the incident, I had received the initial notice on the offence and the entire violation was also captured by cameras installed at the junction. Upon filling in the required information and confirmed by post that I was the driver at the incident, it took about five months to ready the charge.

個多星期前收到 Metropolitan Police 寄來的傳票，法庭正式向我提出控訴。

事緣去年十一月從 M25 返回 Kingston 時，在 Chessington 附近一處十字路口，衝了紅燈。

自問我是個駕駛態度良好，奉公守法的司機， 在路上跑了三十多年，也只有一次類似的衝燈事件，那次除了罰款外，亦慘被扣了三分，而今次就像鬼掩眼一樣，不知為甚麽竟沒留意到紅燈已亮起。

事發後約一星期收到通知，整個衝燈過程更被路口的自動相機拍下，根本無所遁形。填妥基本資料，確認自己是事發時的駕駛者，寄回後便靜待法庭是否作出控訴，前後足足五個月，終於等到了 。

The notice is delivered in the form of ‘Single Justice Procedure‘. What first appeared was the alarming remark:

What happens if you do not respond?

The court will still consider the charge against you and decide if you are guilty or not. If you do not respond by the deadline:

• the cost is less likely to decide in your favour
• you lose the chance for a reduced fine of up to 33% by pleading guity
• if you are found guilty by the court, then you may receive a financial penalty that you cannot afford to pay

You can’t deny if you done something wrong.

When talking about high financial penalty, I immediate confessed.

One can plea guilty either by post or more conveniently, via the make-a-plea online system. You can also choose to attend the court or not in case of pleading for guilty. Given that I have no specific reason to support my plea and the court is very far away from my home, I decided not to attend the court.

傳票是以一個 ‘Single Justice Procedure‘ 的模式寄出，拆開一看 ，首先是個嚇人警告：

What happens if you do not respond?

The court will still consider the charge against you and decide if you are guilty or not. If you do not respond by the deadline:

• the cost is less likely to decide in your favour
• you lose the chance for a reduced fine of up to 33% by pleading guity
• if you are found guilty by the court, then you may receive a financial penalty that you cannot afford to pay

做錯事就要認，無法抵賴，一講到錢，作為窮鬼的我，當然第一時間認罪。

所需步驟卻又來得非常容易，你可以寄回已填妥文件或選擇網上認罪，而認罪的話又可自行決定是否上庭。由於自己也找不到甚麽求情的理由，而法庭又山長水遠，那還是可免則免了。

It’s really interesting that the court will determine the amount of fine and the payment period based on the financial information you provided, in order not to impose too much burden on you. Furthermore, you can also choose to have the fine deducted from your earning or other benefits. Looks like the UK government is more considerate!

不過最有趣的是如果認罪，法庭會根據你的提供的經濟狀況決定罰款金額及支付期限，以避免對你帶來過大的衝擊，再者，罰款更可從你的人工或其他 benefits 中扣除，這點英國政府算是比較人性化。

---

Followed the instructions provided and hit the Submit button, your online pleading was done! Just wait for the court’s final decision and the amount of fine. Hopefully be within my affordability!

在網上填妥資料的，按下 Submit button，看看法庭最後判決及罰款金額，希望不要太多吧！