Notice of intended prosecution

[hysteria164]

Hi, I have received in the post a notice of intended prosecution saying I was involved in an accident in a car park, however I do not recall any incident. The police have provided my number plate and asked me to write back to confirm the owner/driver of the vehicle at the time of the incident, however I should be grateful if you could advise what this means? If I had been in an accident, I would have stopped & left my details but I don't remember hitting a car or anything. Thanks in advance for any help!

[ostell]

Re: Notice of intended prosecution

Could be a number taken down incorrectly. Did they also provide details of the car?

[hysteria164]

Re: Notice of intended prosecution

Hi, no they haven't. They have only provided the registration and said it has been involved in an accident. They now require the driver details and have also advised that charges could be made against the driver for the offences of careless driving/fail to stop/fail to report accident. I should be grateful if you could advise on what to do? Should I call them to request more information? Or complete the form with my details & explain that I don't recall any incident? Thank you

[mystery1]

Re: Notice of intended prosecution

The NIP is a red herring. A NIP is a statutory requirement in cases where there is no accident or the vehicle wasn't stopped. A NIP does not require a response.

What you have is a document which forces combine a NIP and which is actually a S172 request which must be answered within 28 days. It confuses many.

Answering a s172 request is never an admission to any crime and is only a request as to the identity of the driver.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/172

172 Duty to give information as to identity of driver etc in certain circumstances.


(1)This section applies—


(a)to any offence under the preceding provisions of this Act except—


(i)an offence under Part V, or


(ii)an offence under section 13, 16, 51(2), 61(4), 67(9), 68(4), 96 or 120,


and to an offence under section 178 of this Act,
(b)to any offence under sections 25, 26 or 27 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988,


(c)to any offence against any other enactment relating to the use of vehicles on roads, F2. . . and


(d)to manslaughter, or in Scotland culpable homicide, by the driver of a motor vehicle.


(2)Where the driver of a vehicle is alleged to be guilty of an offence to which this section applies—


(a)the person keeping the vehicle shall give such information as to the identity of the driver as he may be required to give by or on behalf of a chief officer of police, and


(b)any other person shall if required as stated above give any information which it is in his power to give and may lead to identification of the driver.


(3)Subject to the following provisions, a person who fails to comply with a requirement under subsection (2) above shall be guilty of an offence.


(4)A person shall not be guilty of an offence by virtue of paragraph (a) of subsection (2) above if he shows that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained who the driver of the vehicle was.


(5)Where a body corporate is guilty of an offence under this section and the offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to neglect on the part of, a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he, as well as the body corporate, is guilty of that offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.


(6)Where the alleged offender is a body corporate, or in Scotland a partnership or an unincorporated association, or the proceedings are brought against him by virtue of subsection (5) above or subsection (11) below, subsection (4) above shall not apply unless, in addition to the matters there mentioned, the alleged offender shows that no record was kept of the persons who drove the vehicle and that the failure to keep a record was reasonable.


(7)A requirement under subsection (2) may be made by written notice served by post; and where it is so made—


(a)it shall have effect as a requirement to give the information within the period of 28 days beginning with the day on which the notice is served, and


(b)the person on whom the notice is served shall not be guilty of an offence under this section if he shows either that he gave the information as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of that period or that it has not been reasonably practicable for him to give it.


(8)Where the person on whom a notice under subsection (7) above is to be served is a body corporate, the notice is duly served if it is served on the secretary or clerk of that body.


(9)For the purposes of section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978 as it applies for the purposes of this section the proper address of any person in relation to the service on him of a notice under subsection (7) above is—


(a)in the case of the secretary or clerk of a body corporate, that of the registered or principal office of that body or (if the body corporate is the registered keeper of the vehicle concerned) the registered address, and


(b)in any other case, his last known address at the time of service.


(10)In this section—


“registered address”, in relation to the registered keeper of a vehicle, means the address recorded in the record kept under [F3 the Vehicles Excise and Registration Act 1994]] with respect to that vehicle as being that person’s address, and
“registered keeper”, in relation to a vehicle, means the person in whose name the vehicle is registered under that Act;
and references to the driver of a vehicle include references to the rider of a cycle.
(11)Where, in Scotland, an offence under this section is committed by a partnership or by an unincorporated association other than a partnership and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance or in consequence of the negligence of a partner in the partnership or, as the case may be, a person concerned in the management or control of the association, he (as well as the partnership or association) shall be guilty of the offence.






So if i were the RK and i was driving i'd say so and attach a letter explaining where i was and not being in an accident.

If i were RK but not the driver i'd nominate the driver.

IF i were the RK and aware of the location of the car at the time and there was no driver i'd write a letter.

Failure of a RK to respond is a 6 point penalty and large fine along with increased insurance for 5 years. I wouldn't want that, that's for sure.

M1