Car Damaged on CCTV - Police Won't Investigate

Bigphil1474

Will depend on the police and what priorities they have. The insurers just have to identify the other persons insurer and sort out the repair, the police have to establish the identity of the driver and carry out an investigation to establish an offence has been committed. Nobody was hurt so not sure the effort is worth the cost to the police tbh. The other driver's insurer will penalise them enough (assuming they are insured).

TooManyPoints

If it made it to court this level starts at 5 points and 25% of weekly wage fine…

 Are you sure about that? 

Ultimately the police have finite resources and even if they did pass it to the CPS…

 The CPS do not normally become involved with non-imprisonable road traffic offences. Charging decisions are made by the police, though they must still consider the “public interest” test. 

Is a fixed penalty available for this offence?

Yes it is (Schedule 3, Road Traffic Offenders’ Act).

Aretnap

TooManyPoints said: 

Is a fixed penalty available for this offence?

Yes it is (Schedule 3, Road Traffic Offenders’ Act).

Erm, historically it hasn't been a fixed penalty offence, and it's not there in the online version - unless it's changed quite recently?


Are you possibly thinking of RTA s163 (failure to stop when required by a constable)?

TooManyPoints

Erm, historically it hasn't been a fixed penalty offence, and it's not there in the online version - unless it's changed quite recently?

Sorry, I thought we were talking about careless driving. My error.

No, failing to stop has never been a FP offence. In fact it is one of the relatively few mooring offences which can attract a custodial sentence (of up o 26 weeks)..

That also makes the other two paragraphs of my answer invalid (apart from the amount of guideline fine, which is 50% RWI).

As far as the CPS goes, I would imagine the police have an agreement with their local CPS to take charging decisions on straightforward "Fail to Stop" offences such as this. They are clearly never going to reach the custody threshold and I doubt the CPS would take an interest unless there were serious aggravating features.

DullGreyGuy

TooManyPoints said:

If it made it to court this level starts at 5 points and 25% of weekly wage fine…

 Are you sure about that? 

Ultimately the police have finite resources and even if they did pass it to the CPS…

 The CPS do not normally become involved with non-imprisonable road traffic offences. Charging decisions are made by the police, though they must still consider the “public interest” test. 

Is a fixed penalty available for this offence?

Yes it is (Schedule 3, Road Traffic Offenders’ Act).

It is according to the Sentencing Council website

At the top level of the offence it can be up to 26 weeks in prison, whilst in most cases that will also mean another offence has been happened in principle it can be category one if they leave the scene when they know they have caused someone injury. 

saajan_12

LookinForaBargain_2 said:

While I appreciate the police force is stretched, I don't understand why they won't investigate when they have the registration and evidence culprit. This person caused the damage and then fled the scene, which I am sure is a crime. 

My excess is £600, so I don't understand why they should be allowed to get away with it, especially if I find out that they don't have insurance. 

Anything the police do won't affect the above, you'll still have to cover the excess if the culprit doesn't have insurance and can't be successfully sued personally. 

TooManyPoints

It is according to the Sentencing Council website

Yes, as above, agreed. I don't know why I was thinking we were discussing careless driving. Must be the heat.