Friend drove my car whilst on a ban

[user3837264]

Hello, I really need some advice. I have name changed for this for obvious reasons.

A few days ago I had a few drinks at the pub so my friend offered to drive us home in my car as I was over the limit. Great, I thought.

Turns out he's got a speeding fine in my car. 62 in a 50. The letter arrived today and I have to name the driver.

I mentioned it to him today as there is photographic evidence of him driving. He is male I am female btw.

He has informed me he has no insurance and is on a ban.

I had no idea.

He is telling me to use a random man's name and say I met him in the pub so I don't know his address.

I'm worried and I don't know what to do. He could face prison as this isn't his first offence/he is on tag (again, I didn't know this at the time)

Please don't flame me, I am so worried and don't know what to do for the best.

Shall I just say it was me and hope they don't check the camera evidence? I will take the points and fine to make this all go away.

I know I've been very stupid. I just didn't want to risk drink/driving.

TIA xxx

Perversion of the course of justice is a serious offence op. I’d consider calling into a police station or non-emergency number and explaining. I think if you are honest now you will be legally fine. He’s clearly an idiot.

Honestly, I would speak to a solicitor specialising in motor offences. Driving on a ban is a serious crime, with greater penalties than driving uninsured. You don’t want to get involved in covering that up by lying about who was driving. Look what happened to Vicky Pryce, and this would be much more serious.

I’m a solicitor but not a criminal specialist. I would not try to navigate this without professional help if it was me and I don’t suggest you do. My guess is that you’ll be advised to tell the truth (obviously) and that the police are unlikely to prosecute you for not checking his insurance etc if you are completely honest now, but that is just a guess. You need proper advice.

I also wouldn’t want to be reliant on someone so unreliable, which you will be if you’re depending on him not to blab.

See my post above at 15.45. I had comprehensive insurance that covered other drivers with my permission but that doesn't cover unlicensed drivers, including those who are banned. Unbeknownst to me at the time, my ex only had a provisional licence so wasn't covered by my insurance so I got points.

Edited time of previous post.

Don't lie to the authorities - you'll end up in a worse fix than now. You HAVE to tell the truth, there's no choice.

Your mate is a dickhead asking you to lie for him.

And PP are right - look up the case of the ex MP who got his wife to lie for him.

He's not your friend.
He is asking you to break the law.
You could get into very seriotrouble for lying.

Don't do it. Tell the truth.

Ignorance could be very believable if this was a casual or relatively new friendship, and there is also the matter of how much she had drunk.

If she was too tipsy to drive, it's very possible she wasn't in a fit state to make a reasonable appraisal of his driving credentials or to give fully informed consent to his plan to drive her car.

He might argue that she wasn't that drunk, but she clearly felt herself too tipsy to drive.

For goodness sake, the police arent stupid. If it was that easy to pretend some mythical stranger drove your car and got you a fine then everyone would use that excuse to get out of speeding fines.

Your friend is a horrible, horrible person who is willing to throw you under the bus for his own selfish reasons.

You must tell the truth. Its the only way out of this mess.

Don't lie. You could get done for perjury.
You don't even know if he is telling you the truth now. He could just be saying that to try and make it your problem .
Write his details in the form and send it back. He can deal with consequences.

He's not your friend. He has knowingly broken the law and is asking you to lie for him. Don't do it.

Yeah just send the form in with his name on it. Then he can face the consequences.

But don’t go out and drive and then not be able to get back due to drinking. Get a taxi if you have to. Not Random Tony with an ankle tag from the pub. Did you even ask if he was insured? Because that’s the first thing I’d have done. It was only really recently that I found out that my insurance lets me drive other peoples cars on a third party basis. I always assumed you had to be a named driver so I’ve never let anyone drive mine. I would now but only my sister or my partner and I know they are insured.

But also I’m not 100% sure they check or can see who is driving from the photo. They send it to you in the post don’t they? I have had a speeding ticket and seem to remember that the driver wasn’t visible at all on the photo.

Why lie for this idiot who knowingly drove your car over the speed limit but couldn't even have the decency or balls to tell you he's tagged, banned from driving and has no insurance, do you have third party insurance, is anyone else even allowed to drive your car. He's no friend, ditch him and you both take the responsibility for letting this happen.

So this guy is on tag and been banned from driving and you expect us to believe he turned up for the pub for an orange juice or something? Thinking when he showed up he wouldn't be driving?

I bet he was over the limit too.

You could have killed someone.

If you lie, you will be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice. If you give a random man's name, how are you going to answer questions about how you knew that this random could drive and was covered by insurance?

This is totally on the driver. He knew he had no business offering to drive your car, let alone speeding while doing so. He decided to take the risk, he has to be prepared to take the consequences. Imagine if you had had a serious accident on the way home - it wouldn't have been covered by insurance and you could be prosecuted for aiding and abetting.

You have absolutely no choice but to tell the truth.

I echo what others are saying in that you need to tell the truth. He drove the car and is in trouble anyway. He doesn’t seem to have learnt any lessons from the imposition of the ban if he continues to exceed the speed limit.

No one is seriously going to believe that you let an unknown person drive your car, so what he suggested is not going to work.

Of course he might get nasty and vindictive and tell the police you let him drive knowing that he was banned and therefore uninsured. That’s not in your control though.

@user3837264 he should have told you he couldn't drive but usually it’s the car owner whose insurance covers other drivers or not - if someone asks me to drive their car, I have comprehensive insurance on mine which allows me to drive someone else’s with only third party cover. But I would be saying ‘does your policy allow anyone over 25 to drive the car?’ And refusing if not. Pretty sure your insurer would say it is your responsibility to check.

However, also pretty sure your insurer would say people who are banned won’t be covered - which comes back to your ‘friend’ being dishonest and basically dropping you in it. I think you’re going to have to come clean. I don’t know if the police will involve your insurers, or pursue you for that bit. Maybe talk to Citizens’ Advice first?

Perverting the course of justice is a far more serious offence than driving whilst disqualified. You risk a very real prison sentence

Read this:

www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/mar/11/chris-huhne-vicky-pryce

If you lie and get found out, that's potentially a perverting the cause of justice charge which I believe is far more serious.

I think I'd feel no option but to DOB him in.

Don't throw yourself under a bus for a man. He knew what he was doing.

Tell the truth. They're not stupid they'd know you're lying.

Why would he be insured to drive your car? Does he run a garage? You insure your car, not him. So you are wrong to let someone drive it if you don’t have insurance to cover them. Thats reckless of you. It’s reckless of him too, obviously. The pair of you are idiots! Tell the truth. This might be difficult for you but do it!

My insurance covers me to drive any car. Other types of insurance can cover anyone driving your car.

Do you think he is telling the truth about the ban and the tag? Because a) wouldn’t you have noticed the tag, b) tagged people are usually under curfew, c) if I was banned and still driving, I’d drive like a nervous 70yr old vicar, not go speeding through a camera more than ten miles over the limit.

I wonder if he is just trying to scare you into taking the points for him.

I hope you're okay OP and that this absolute mess gets sorted out - do not lie to the authorities. Ever. Whatever is coming your way will be presented with much less empathy if you try to be devious.

Please learn from this. Uber home next time and don't collect your car the next day until you know enough time has passed to drive under the limit x