Identifing Driver

[Isiris]

Ill try and keep this short but to the point as I see posters on here who give war and peace

but when you sort the wheat from the chaff, its easy.

 

My wife is the RK for all our vehcle (3)

 

Sunday we were going to a football match with our son to an away game in a convoy.

My wife drove to the game I, on arrival, went to a shop to get our son a drink as we hadnt got one.

 

Roll on later (within 14 days) and we get a NIP for running a red light.

I immediatley write on my wifes behalf and immediately say theres only 2 people whoicould be drivers, my wife (5f 4 9s 7lb with blonde hair) or me (5f 2 25st Short Dark Hair).

 

 

We cant work out who it was as we dont know the area at all (away game)

and just know I went to get a drink for my son.

Please send the pic so we can work out who it was.

 

The picture came back, rear view with nothing to identify the driver.

The mirrors dont show a driver.

 

There was a car in the pic and we went to the football match the follwoing week and asked if it was any of our parents car as if it was, it was on the way to the match so my wife. While it not being one of theres, it isnt proof either way.

 

advised that we couldnt identify so sorry.

 

then get a court date in my wifes name for failing to provide.

appoint a solicitor who says he beleives we have done everything.

 

 

we attend court.

After 2 hours they had heard 3 cases with 4 more remaining, it was adjourned.

 

 

The prosecution, infront of me, wife and solicitor said, if one of you wants to say it was you driving, we can just issue 3 pts and a small fine. Otherwise if you lose it could be £1200 fines, £600 costs and Vicitim Surcharge.

 

I thought hang on, surely this is perjury in reverse. We are being asked to lie to make their life easier.

 

then were supposed to attend again but due to illness, we couldnt and it has been adjourned again.

Our solicittor wrote to us and advised that again the prosecution had advised that we could take the offer.

This time its actually in writing.

 

genuinely do not know who was driving to this day and believe we have done everything.

advised from day one there was only 2 people it could be

(not as if we have thrown 20 people into the hat)

and just asked them to help with the pic so Im struggling how we could do more.

 

My questions are

 

1. Should we take the offer or are we on strong ground not to be found guilty

 

2. Should we consider reporting the prosecution to someone

as we are being asked to commit perjury as we do not know who was the driver.

[renegadeimp]

If you dont idenitfy the driver, the RK will be prosecuted. When it goes to court the punishment will be harsher.

 

 

the prosecution are offering you a plea bargain ,

although poorly worded,

as they know you'll get a heavier penalty.

[Isiris]

Surely if you have made every attempt to indentify the driver, as required, how can an offence have occured?

[Aretnap]

Your problem is that too many people who take their legal advice from a bloke in the pub think that a brilliant wheeze for getting out of speeding tickets is to say "sorry, can't remember who was driving, could have been either of us".

 

 

As a result magistrates tend to treat the claim that two grown adults can't remember a journey they made a few days earlier with a healthy degree of scepticism, and while it's not impossible to defend these cases you are certainly on the back foot, and you be to be unusually credible when giving evidence to defend them.

 

 

And the penalty for failing to identify the driver is significantly harsher than the penalty for most pending or red light offences

- precisely to discourage people from playing sillybuggers over it.

 

If you decide to defend the charge then the onus is on you to persuade the court that you did everything you reasonably could be done to work out who was driving.

 

 

Asking for a photo was one of the things you could have done, certainly, but by no means the only one.

 

 

You say it was a strange town - but you were given the time and location of the incident.

 

 

Did you look up the location on a map or on Google Streetviiew?

 

 

Was it on he way to the ground or on the way to the shop?

 

 

How does the time fit with your journey? And so on and so forth.

 

No point trying to complain about the prosecutor

- the offer you've been given is perfectly standard and if you really can't honestly name a driver then you're not being forced to do so.

 

 

However the prosecutor sees people every day who claim not to know who was driving,

and the vast majority are either lying or have made almost no effort to find out.

 

 

They would be easily broken down under cross-examination, and the prosecutor is in the main doing them a favour by giving them a chance to think again.

 

As far as perjury goes, that only applies if you provide information which you know to be untrue. If you name the person who you believe was probably driving then you're not committing perjury, even if your belief turns out to be incorrect.

 

It's your decision of course, but the penalties for failing to name the driver are severe (and the insurance penalties are even worse

- the MS90 code makes insurers wonder what you did that was so terrible that £600 and 6 points seemed like a better option than owning up to it)

 

 

so in your position I'd probably take the easy option ad take my best guess at who was driving.

[Aretnap]

Surely if you have made every attempt to indentify the driver, as required, how can an offence have occured?

 

If the OP (or rather his wife) really has done all he could to identify the driver

then he does indeed have a defence to the case and no offence has been committed

(other than the red light offence of course).

 

 

However the law puts the burden on the defendant to prove that he/she did all he could,

and "all he could" is a higher bar than a lot of people realise.

 

 

The defence is not impossible to make, but it's not easy either.

[Isiris]

What we did then was

 

The camera was literally 100 yards from the football field where my son was playing.

 

 

We would have both driven through the camera within 5 minutes of each other.

 

We immediately said who the two people could have been.

 

When we received the picture and there was no visibility of the driver but of another car,

we took the picture to the training session to ask if anyone was driving the car.

 

 

This in itself if someone said yes its mine,

would indicate that it was my wife driving

but in the circumstances that it wasnt,

doesnt exonerate her either.

 

I am genuinely asking what else could we do?

[renegadeimp]

If you cant identify the driver, theyll go after the RK. It really is as simple a process as that. Theyve heard every excuse in the book, and even more when it comes to failing to identify the driver. Especially if it wasn't long ago.