You really do not want to be here if you can avoid it.
I’m really excited to share a new series on simple things people can do to stay out of the magistrates court.
Over the next six days, I’ll show you everyday mistakes people are making which are costing them money, points on their licence, and/or unnecessary criminal convictions.
Today, I’m talking about 172s – Failure to Provide Information
If your vehicle is involved in a road traffic accident or caught on camera going through a red light or speeding, the police will try to track you down by the registration number on your vehicle – so they can serve a Notice of Intended Prosecution on the driver.
The police have the power to require a registered keeper to “nominate” the driver. That means the police will send the registered keeper a Notice of Intended Prosecution – and it is for the registered keeper to say whether they were driving the vehicle at the time of the speeding/camera offence or traffic accident – or whether someone else was. If someone else was, the police want the registered keeper to tell them in writing that person’s name and address – so they can send that person a personally addressed Notice of Intended Prosecution (even if that person lives in the same house as the registered keeper).
It doesn’t matter if you were driving the vehicle when the incident happened or not. The issue for the magistrates court will be whether you responded to the police in the way that you are supposed to within the time limit.
The penalty for failing to give the police that information within the time limit is 6 points and a fine – as well as prosecution costs and a government mandated victim surcharge.
How do the police know the registered keeper’s address?
They check it against the log book V5C registration – and not your driving licence.
Just because you have changed your address on your driving licence does not mean the DVLA automatically updates your vehicle registration.
The problem for some people is that their log book DVLA record is not up to date. Maybe they’ve split up from their partner and moved away from the address. Maybe a family member is ill – and they have left their homes to go help care for their family member for an extended period of time. Maybe they remembered to change their address on their driving licence – but forgot about the log book.
While some of the s172 failure to provide information rules may seem unfair or harsh – one way to easily avoid this 6 points and costs drama is to double-check your V5C log book address details (as well as your driving licence details) and make sure both are up to date.
My simple tip
Follow this link and make sure the DVLA has your correct address details for both your log book and your driving licence.