If you are the registered keeper of the vehicle alleged to have committed a motoring offence but were not stopped by a police officer at the time of commission of the alleged offence, then you should receive the Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) within 14 days of the alleged offence.

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If you have received a NIP it would be wise to call us for some free advice as to your options at the stage.

Often these list many offences and can put the fear of god into you but a quick call to us will put your mind at ease.

If you are the registered keeper and have been charged with failing to provide driver details you may have a defence if you can show that you exercised reasonable diligence to ascertain who the driver was at the time or it is not reasonably practicable to give the information within 28 days or in the case of a driver other than the keeper it is not in his power to provide the information.

Of course the police must prove service of the request and if you can show that it was not delivered then the prosecution have failed in their duty to prove proper service.

There is a greater burden on employers/companies who are expected to maintain clear processes to identify who is driving a company vehicle. Click here for more information for companies.

There is no definition and each case will be decided on its merits.

You must be able to show that on a balance of probabilities you did your best to identify the driver.

There are a number of things you can do to show you have exercised due diligence :–

• Ask for photo evidence from the police. They don’t always agree to send it out but if you explain you are struggling they may be persuaded Even if the photo is of the rear of the car or the police do not send it at least you can show that you asked!
• Ask all possible drivers whether they could have been driving the car on that occasion before nominating them get a statement from them.
• Check that the other potential drivers were insured to drive the car – otherwise, you will get yourself into further trouble by being accused of permitting someone to drive your car without insurance (6 penalty points)
• Check diary dates/work commitments to try and jog your memory and make a note of when you did this.
• Look at a map and check the route try to establish at which points you may have changed drivers..
• Furthermore, be careful about nominating people from abroad. This is because, the police rarely believe it and tend to think it’s just an attempt to avoid the points.
• We have an excellent record in defending these cases. We often get cases dropped without a trial at court or if the matter goes to trial our clients are acquitted.

If you would like some free advice to find out whether you have a defence do not hesitate to call one of our specialist solicitors who will be able to assist you.

If you are not the registered keeper of the vehicle then there is a lower burden on you. For a person who is someone other than the keeper, the law places an duty only to provide the information that is in your power which could assist the police in identifying the driver at the time of the alleged offence. 

If you have not updated the your details with the DVLA it is unlikely that you could use this argument as a defence unless you can show that you had arranged a mail forwarding service or regularly checked at the old address for mail.

However, our postal system leaves a lot to be desired. There is a presumption that the S172 notice will have been served two days after posting. You will have rebut this presumption.

You will have to show on a balance of probabilities that did not receive the request and therefore were unable to respond.

It is difficult to prove that you did not receive something and you should obtain advice as to what you can do to show that you did not receive the request from the police. If you speak to one of our legal team they will be able to assist.

If the prosecution have sent a S172 notice it will mean that they cannot identify the driver so it would be difficult to prove the offence of speeding.

Usually the CPS will continue with both offences until the day of trial and then offer no evidence on the speeding matter. They will then proceed to trial on the offence of failing to provide driver information.

However, if you wanted to plead guilty to the speeding offence we should be able to persuade the prosecution to drop the failure to provide driver details.

You need to speak to one of our legal team if you have been prosecuted for two offences as we will be able to resolve the issues you are facing without too much difficulty.