Failing to Furnish Driver Details – The importance of having a ‘system in place’

Recently, the footballer Jesse Lingard was in the news having been disqualified from driving for 6 months for failing to name the driver of his car. His car had been caught speeding and the initial letter from the Police, which will always ask the registered keeper of the car to name the driver at the time the car was caught speeding, was sent to his registered address in Manchester but at the time he was living away in Nottingham whilst playing for Nottingham Forrest. 

It’s an interesting area of law that I’ve dealt with many times in the past. So what can we take away from it?

Failing to furnish driver details

It is important to note that Lingard was disqualified for ‘totting-up’.  That means accumulating 12 points on his licence within 3 years.  Totting-up is a separate matter and something we have written about previously.

This latest offence/conviction is for ‘failing to furnish driver details’, this attracts a standard 6-point penalty.  Put simply, that means that you received a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) for an offence from the Police, in this case, speeding, and you have failed to reply by providing the name and address of the driver within the required response period.

The importance of having a system in place.

There can be many legitimate reasons which can act as a potential defence for failing to provide this information, one of them could be that you are living and working in a different area. This is a short-term situation and so it is not reasonable and practical to change your address with all the usual places (DVLA, banks, bill providers etc…).  However, to rely on this as a defence there must be a ‘system’ in place to deal with your post.

That may sound quite formal but in reality that ‘system’ could be almost anything, for example;

1. Having a trusted family member or friend collecting and sending-on post, or,
2. You returning home at weekends. Or,
3. On renovation jobs, the builders know to pick up the post and place it in a certain spot each day for you to collect regularly.

The only thing you cannot do is nothing.  It would be reckless to ignore your post and the consequences can be severe, as we have seen with the Lingard case.

The bottom line

The same law applies if you have moved house.  So be sure to promptly update all the relevant agencies as to your new address.

If you’re looking for legal advice on motoring law, Gorvins’ expert solicitors can help you explore how to approach your case. For more information, contact us via email at enquiries@gorvins.com, call us on 0161 930 5151, or make an enquiry via our online form.