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MoJ - no Owner liability for byelaw 14

Hi all

Thought you might be interested to see this:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/statistics_for_prosecutions_of_r

MoJ state:

"Please note 14(4)(i) is not itself an offence but simply stipulates the penalty for any of these three offences." [14(1) - 14(3)]

Those three offences only ever refer to 'person in charge of any motor vehicle'.

The enforcement byelaw 24(1) states that "Any person who breaches any of these Byelaws commits an offence" and we know offences can only be enforced by Magistrates' Court as confirmed previously by DfT. As the Owner liability clause is now definitely not an offence, it has no relevance.

This effectively confirms our thinking that there can be no Owner liability with regards to byelaw breaches, unless it can be proven first in Magistrates' Court that the Driver or 'person in charge of any motor vehicle' committed a breach of 14(1) - 14(3).

Therefore any threats from PPCs claiming the old tripe that "even if you were not the driver at the time of this incident you may still be liable" is proven false.

Note: Attached to the MOJs response are the statistics for prosecutions using byelaw 14, broken down by subsection (1)-(3) and year.

Enjoy :)

Comments

  • Castle
    Castle Posts: 5,080 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Furthermore; byelaw 24(4) states:-
    "No person shall be subject to any penalty for breach of any of the Byelaws by disobeying a notice unless it is proved to the satisfaction of the Court before whom the complaint is laid that the notice referred to in the particular Byelaw was displayed".
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