Alleged driving incident

angela3boys

My husband has received a letter from the police (after he confirmed in the initial letter he was the driver of our car) stating he was involved in an incident of 'driving without due care and attention' and that he should attend a 'What's Driving Us' course. He doesn't know what the incident was but the Police can't tell him in case he chooses to go to court and informing him of this incident will affect the court process. In the meantime, there is someone making a claim against our insurance for damages but are yet to supply evidence. There is no phone number to contact the police and the insurance won't confirm if his attendance on the course (as oppose to going to court) will accept liability...this seems absurd. We have no damage to our vehicle by the way but have to
Accept/decline the course by 23/3! Any advice greatly received. 

DullGreyGuy

Your insurers should be able to tell you what the allegations are, where and when the incident happened. If the third party's notification to them didnt include that to start with, most do, then they should have immediately gone back to them to ask for it at the same time as contacting you. 

Accepting to do a course is not the same as admitting liability however if the claim went to court (which is civil court and separate from the criminal court action the police/CPS are considering) the judge has to decide on the "balance of probability" and the decision to do the course could add some weight to the third party's case.

diystarter7

Hi
That is odd though I have no experience of police letters
Could it be a send up letter, ie a ill thought-out joke by someone?

Did the letter state the time and place and was your hubby in that location at the time? Is this the second letter as you said he had confired he was the driver, so what did the first letter say?

Thnaks

facade

Get your husband to register at pepipoo dot com, and post in the "Speeding and other Criminal offences" forum asking for advice. (No hotmail email addresses, and he should post as they prefer to deal directly with the accused, rather than via an intermediary)

They will want precise details of correspondence (scans with personal details redacted are best) and telephone calls.

The part I find odd is that the Police won't tell you what it is about unless you elect to go to court, they don't have to supply evidence before this, but surely they have to say what he is accused of. (There is usually some form of interview, or at least a form to fill in with your version of events- maybe they have dashcam footage and it is obvious what happened so they don't need an interview)

The Police might not have enough to make DWDC stick, and they are fishing for the course, or they might be giving him an easy way out because of possible video evidence, so I would be quick as there is little time to accept the course (AFAIK they are a couple of hours online sat in front of your webcam to prove you aren't watching TV).

There doesn't have to be contact for him to be involved in an accident, a close pass or close pulling out could cause another driver to swerve and hit a kerb for example.

Nelliegrace

This sounds worrying. Is it the new version of criminals gangs in cars causing accidents deliberately and making huge claims for whiplash injury? A variation on the ad, now you don’t know when you’ve been tango’d.