The Law
Under Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, the registered keeper of a vehicle has a legal obligation to provide details of who was driving at the time of an alleged motoring offence.
Penalties
Failing to provide drivers identity carries 6 penalty points on your licence and up to £1000 fine.
Hi Lucinda - I wanted to thank you for your support during my case. You put my mind at rest and made the whole process not only painless but also stress free, so thank you.
Dear Lucinda, I wanted to say thanks to you once again. you have done the amazing work for me.
How can we help you?
If you have been summonsed to attend court for the offence of failing to provide the identity of the driver of your vehicle, we recommend you seeking legal advice as soon as possible. We can help in one of the following ways:
1. Advise you on how to correctly respond to a request for information if you have received one.
2. We can book you in for a virtual consultation with one of our specialist solicitors as soon as possible to discuss how best to proceed with your case (most clients request a virtual consultation to work around their working commitments which we can always offer).
Once you have booked in with us, we will start work on your case right away. If you do not have all the information about your case available, we will request the prosecution evidence from the police prosecutors, if this is provided before your consultation, we will be able to go through all this with you. We will be able to assess the evidence against you and advise whether it is in your best interests to plead Guilty or Not Guilty. If the evidence is yet available, we can take your full instructions, advise you on the relevant law and procedure and prepare you for your court hearing.
The prosecution are under a duty to only continue with cases where there is realistic prospect of securing a conviction. Once we have assessed the evidence against you, in appropriate cases, we can make representations on your behalf asking them to withdraw the case.
3. We can also provide statutory defences, where applicable, if you do not accept the offence:
Possible defences:
• Not reasonably practicable. Section 172 (7) (b) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 states that “the person on whom the notice is served shall not be guilty of an offence under this section if he shows either that he gave the information as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of that period, or that it has not been reasonably practicable for him to give it”.
One legitimate argument that would fall under this section would include if a person is away during the 28-day period within which the information is required but provides it as soon as they can upon becoming aware of the request.
Another common argument is that the request was never received. A defendant cannot be expected to respond to a request for driver information if they did not receive it. The Police will provide a witness statement from the member of the team who printed the request and prepared it for posting. The notice is therefore deemed served. Most notices are sent by first class post, and the presumption of service is therefore “rebuttable”, but it can be disputed. However, there are instances where the Police send it by signed for or registered post, but it is rare for them to do so.But arguing the above is often not enough, we can help you to to provide further evidence, such as demonstrating postal issues that you might have had for example.
• Reasonable Diligence.Section 172 (4) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 states that a person shall not be guilty of an offence under this section if he shows that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained who the driver of the vehicle was.For this defence to succeed, the defendant must show, that more likely than not, they did not know who the driver was, and that they did their best to try to figure it out, you should consider the location, date and time of the offence, checking your diary or bank statements to try to jog your memory, discussing the matter with all other potential drivers and asking them to do the same.
• The information was provided. If the court accept your evidence that you received the request, completed the form, put it in a stamped addressed envelope and posted it then they should find you not guilty. For this defence the Court would have to be persuaded, beyond reasonable doubt.
4. Pleading Guilty to failing to provide driver identification.If the evidence against you is strong, or you wish to plead guilty for a mistake made, we have a particularly outstanding reputation for providing expert court mitigation to get the best outcome at court for you.
Contact Lucinda Dore Solicitors today for legal advice. We can arrange virtual consultation for you at short notice.