Safe Speed Forums

Brief background - the car involved is a show car its driven to different events by my brothers friends and members of the family. It has a main driver and three named drivers on the insurance.

Recieved a speeding notice for doing 84 in a 60. We wanted to double check who was driving (we obviously could take a guess between two but because we werent in immediate contact thought we'd get a picture.)

They sent one picture which shows the car and just someones arm. From the pic you cant even tell if its male or female though we know its male.

We sent it back saying that we could possibly name the driver but couldnt be certain from that picture and whether they had another or a better quality print out.

We heard nothing more until yesterday when we were sent a court summons for A not telling them who was driving and B doing 84 in a 60.

The thing is, the registered owner was 100% not driving at that time because of being away yet she's the one having to appear in court.

We REALLY now dont know what to do, should we just write back saying we're 80% sure it was driver X and give his contact details or what? We dont feel as though we're being difficult its just that we wanted to know 100% who was driving before we went round accusing the users of the car.

My mum who is the registered keeper is now facing points/ fine whatever else because shes failed to tell them who it is

If there are 3 people who could have been driving on the day, name all three and set out what you have done to try to find out which one it was.

Points are far from inevitable as long as you make genuine efforts to ID the driver.

Its extremely unlikely they will proceed with both charges.

I don't know your personal circumstances and am NOT accusing you of anything but you need to be aware that a car registered in a parents name but driven by children is likely to arouse suspicion about an insurance offence. ie getting cheap insurance by naming an older person as the main driver when that is not the case.

First you need to visit Pepipoo and get some help from there.

The court date you have won't be the proper trial, it will be a pre trial hearing.

There is a defence to S172 if you have taken reasonable steps to determine who the driver was, it will be up to the court to decide if your mum has done that. BUT she will have to plead not guilty and will have to stand up in court and explain what steps she took to determine who the driver was.

The CPS might try to do a deal and drop the S172 if she admits to the speeding, if it wasn't her then that might be perjury/perverting the course of justice so be careful of that one. People have been put away for taking their children's ponts.

While I agree with what you have said, I think in this instance, the OP states it is a show car - and as such, this would appear to be a valid reason to have the vehicle insured in this manner - i.e. it may well only be driven at weekends to and from events.

Another aspect to this is that no matter what the set up, the risk to the insurance company is the same - unless they have more than one accident!
My wife has always been a named driver on both our cars, and has made one claim in 15 years - our ONLY claim in all the time of our joint insurance history.
A son/daughter driving their parents vehicle under the same circumstances ie on a shared mileage rather than shared time should be acceptable... unless profit is their only motive!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

My wife and my older children are insured to drive my car and I am insured to drive theirs . My kids have cars insured in their own names. I help out with the premiums as they are still students. But the cars are insured in their names and I pay like the Mad Doc pays for his three young drivers.

I would do as fisherman says... name all who might have been driving and let them prove who was if you honestly cannot remember.

That's part of the problem with automated enforcement of speeding laws. It relies too much on human integrity.
(Research has shown that innocent babies can con you with deliberate attention seeking cries and reward you with pleased gurgles when you cuddle them (Mine always deposited baby sick on me. Par for the course My customers gob on me.. my kids likewise )

It also relies on record keeping and people don't keep records if they swap drivers on long drives.


Can your Mum prove she was away from home at the time? Receipts .. photos if on holiday.. all of these can prove her innocence of the speeding charge and being unaware who was driving her car at the time.

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