S172 – Three Drivers Took Turns On Long Journey

Question:

The alleged offence was at 10 PM at night and as such the 2 photographs received fails to identify the driver of the vehicle. The windscreen in the car is totally black and no amount of zooming in can identify the driver, the only clear thing in the whole photo is the number plate with the car not being identifiable either.

I was traveling back from London at the time with 2 other people in the car and we split the journey in several legs. I genuinely cannot remember who was driving at the time of the alleged offence. I was wondering do I have a defence to the offence and if so how do I go about it ?

Dominic Says:

I understand the difficulties that you find yourself in. You have done the right thing by asking for the photos.

You are going to need to show the court that you have used reasonable diligence to figure out who was driving at the time of the alleged offence because its likely that you will be summonsed to court for failing to name the driver. This carries 6 points and a hefty fine if convicted..

Make sure that you name the other potential drivers to the police and provide their full contact details. You also need to speak to them about the journey and try and figure out where you changed drivers and who was driving at the relevant time.

Have you got any points on your licence already? If so, how many?

At the moment we are persuading the police not to issue summonses in these type of cases just over 80% of the time by showing them that our clients have used reasonable diligence and that they don’t have a good chance of convicting you if they take you to court.