BIL gave DP's name when stopped by police

[Worlds0kayestmum]

I'm so angry and upset right now. DP's brother has been heavily into drugs over the years and recently has gone completely off the rails (stealing from family members, breaking down doors, fighting, juggling 3 girlfriends and getting 2 pregnant). He and DP had a falling out over a year ago and have been non contact ever since.

His brother has been on a driving ban for driving under the influence and although it's come to an end, he hasn't reapplied for his licence because he needs to do a drugs test and is never clean enough to take one. He has been driving his girlfriend's car without a licence or insurance.

In April he was stopped by police and admitted to driving without insurance but unbeknownst to us, gave the police DP's name so he wasn't caught for driving without a licence. The first we heard of it was today when we popped into MIL's house (where the brother is living) and I noticed a letter with DP's name on amongst the toys the kids were playing with. It was a Single Justice Procedure Notice telling DP he needed to enter a guilty or not guilty plea online to driving without insurance.

Luckily the offence was during the day of a weekday when DP was at work and as he works for a major energy company, they will have evidence of him at work and also a vehicle tracker on his work van. Also his brother has since been caught driving without insurance again and has a court appearance next month.

But we have no idea how to sort it out, there's no guidance on what to do if it's not you. Do we enter a not guilty plea and include the evidence from work and list his mum and sister who will confirm it was the brother because he told them and they went with his girlfriend to collect her car which was impounded? Or do we speak to a solicitor we can't afford? It's so stressful, he would lose his job over a driving conviction not to mention he has surgery on Friday and this is a stress we could do without :(

I guess you need to send it back ASAP with not guilty on it and go from there.
What a shit.

I would ring the police and see if you can get the investigating officer to accept a letter, or maybe even phone the CPS. Hopefully they would drop the charges.

Failing that, yes enter not guilty and provide the evidence.

I’m sorry this has happened to you. It’s entirely unfair. I would actually complain to the police. They should confirm someone’s identity really.

I think your first port of call is the nearest police station. Just explain and ask them what you should do next. If they can sort it from their end by getting in touch with the officer then they will. If it needs to go further then they will tell you what to do hopefully.

I am a magistrate, so I hope this advice will be helpful. Send it back pleading not guilty. Unfortunately, your DP will then gave to attend court for trial (I know, this is enormously unfair, but it's how the system works). On the day, ask to speak to the duty solicitor. Ask his sister and mother to attend as witnesses. Take any and all relevant paperwork from his employment. It will be thrown out (I have seen several similar cases) but it's very unfair and unfortunate that you do actually have to jump through these hoops to get to that point.

Thank You, I had hoped we could avoid court especially as he is supposed to be resting for a minimum of 9 weeks after his surgery on Friday.
I will tell him to get his evidence gathered.

I'm so angry!!

Thats a hugely shitty thing for his brother to do to him. Id be asking his work to collaborate that he was in work

Just shows how fucking ridiculous the legal system is in this country
Should be a case of leaving it with the police as
A) he’s committed an offence
and
B) perverted the course of justice

Why should an innocent man have to waste a day of his time and have the stigma of appearing in court just cos some worthless scumbag gives his name
Fucking ridiculous

I'm so so cross at the moment. It's such a cowardly, horrible thing to do to somebody

I know, I agree that it's completely unfair. It's probably worth contacting the police as pp suggest to see if they can halt the prosecution, but once it's got as far as a court summons it may have gone past that point and your DP will have to appear. Very best of luck with it all OP.

Report to the police OP, your DP's brother has committed a separate offence by giving the police false details. He can then use the incident number from that along with his not guilty plea

Why did they send the letter to your MIL's house? Surely your DP's details (eg licence) will be registered at your own address?

I don't know, I presume that's the address his brother gave. He wouldn't know our current address because they've been NC for over a year

The address thing is extra evidence in your DPs favour.

What a cunt your BIL is.

How awful OP, hope you can get it sorted without having to go to court! X

Thanks, I will try and get all the information together and help him write a statement. I've told him to report him to the police but he's reluctant to, I think he thinks it's a betrayal of his brother. I've told him that his brother didn't have any loyalty to him to do this and to think about it. We will definitely seek advice from the police though

We reported him this morning

I'm also a magistrate. This should be able to be resolved without a trial, but he will need to enter a not guilty plea now and a trial will be listed.

The CPS has a duty to review prosecutions as they progress, including when any new evidence comes to light. Get your evidence in front of the prosecutor as soon as possible. If the evidence is clear - especially from his employer - then the trial should be "vacated" and the charge withdrawn. Nobody wants to waste a trial slot unnecessarily.

They may well lay further charges against his brother, but that's not your problem.

Thank you. The company he works for is a big well known company with lots of procedures in place. His van has a tracker and every job he attends is documented to the minute plus he usually works out of county. Hopefully that will be enough evidence even if his mum and sister don't want to get involved (they are pretty intimidated by BIL because of his behaviour whilst using). And the car is registered to his girlfriend who he has a baby with who we have never met

I'm concerned that he thinks he's being disloyal. Unless he tells the police everything, if he goes along with it and takes the penalty he'll end up in jail. See what happened with Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce.

He will tell the police everything. We talked about it this morning and we have reported his brother to the police

The police just phoned. He seemed to be completely satisfied that it was BI, not DP because DP has got a clean driving record so has no reason to not just accept points and a fine if he had been driving without insurance rather than trying to pin the blame on someone else whereas his brother, who is disqualified from driving, had every reason to lie. Plus it's his girlfriend's car plus DP is happy to provide evidence from work plus BIL is up for another driving offence and apparently an assault charge.

He's gone missing at the moment so the police are trying to track him down to confess but if he doesn't, we will need to give statements.

Hopefully this can be resolved without the hassle of court. So frustrating. The police officer said what an idiot he's been because now he's in far worse trouble than if he had confessed he was driving whilst disqualified when first pulled over instead of pretending to be someone else.

DP Is away overnight at the moment and I do feel slightly anxious being home alone with kids in case BIL turns up. Ive gone round triple checking all the doors are locked

How stressful and unpleasent for you both.

BIL can go boil his head.

I hope it can be sorted out without inconveniencing your DH any further because the police officer is right about your BIL making it worse for himself - FFS! Such a stupid thing to do!

If your BIL does turn up, seeing as they are already looking for him I'm sure the Police would be interested!