Failing to Name the Driver: Understanding the Penalties and Defences

Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act imposes a legal obligation on the registered keeper of a vehicle to provide the driver’s identity at the time of an alleged road traffic offence.

Failure to name the driver can face severe penalties, including:

• six penalty points on your licence and,
• up to £1000 fine.

The legal obligation

It is important to note that nominating either yourself or another as the driver at the time of an alleged offence is not the same as confessing to having committed the offence itself. It is simply providing the police with one piece of evidence specifically concerning driver identification.

The person nominated is still perfectly entitled to defend the charge by suggesting that they were not driving without due care and attention or that they was not speeding at the time of the alleged offence.

Statutory defences

The reasonable diligence argument means that you shall not be convicted of failing to provide driver information if you can show that you used reasonable diligence to ascertain who was driving at the time of the incident or offence.

Alternatively, if you can show that it was not reasonably practicable to identify the driver within 28 days, you will not be convicted of failing to provide driver information.

How can we help?

If you have been accused of failing to provide information, we can help you apply any relevant case law to your circumstances. Contact us at motoring@chadlaw.co.uk to discuss the case and receive specific advice on how we can help you.