A DEFENDANT made a round trip of more than 500 miles from his home in Croydon, Surrey, to enter a not guilty plea to speeding -- only to be told he could have made his plea by letter.

Richard Prew, defending, told Blackburn magistrates it was not clear from any of the paperwork received by his client Sami Safadi, 42, that plea in writing was an option.

"Perhaps it is something that could be considered in future," said Mr Prew. "In this case it would have saved my client setting off at 4am to achieve something that could have been done for the price of a stamp."