No Damage And Not Aware Of Accident

Question:

My 76 year old father has been summonsed to court charged with failing to stop at an accident and driving without due care and attention. Another driver has accused him of pulling into his lane without indicating and causing extremely minor damage (dent the size of a thumbprint!).

There is no damage whatsoever to may fathers car as is confirmed by an independent assessor and it has its original paintwork. The other driver turned up at my fathers house and accused him of secretly having the car repaired! My father attended the police station to give a statement saying he was not aware of any collision but was in the area at the time.

The police officer suggested settling the matter on insurance and said if this was done the case would not be taken further. So my father agreed to this as he has comprehensive insurance and protected no claims bonus and settled his claim.

However the police are now still pursuing the case and taking him to court and deny suggesting he should settle the matter on insurance, but because he has done this it now makes him appear to admit liability.

The police say the other driver has a witness (his wife) so they are taking the matter very seriously and the case is now with the CPS. How can this be correct the police can ignore the fact that my fathers car is undamaged.

Should we complain about intimidation from the other driver, and also the police officer in wrongly advised him to settle the case on insurance? My father is a very careful driver with no points and is extremely stressed about the whole matter.

 Emma Says:

I understand your concerns and it sounds like everyone has been heavy handed in this matter (apart from your father).

Unfortunately he is facing 5-10 points if prosecuted.

I have a very good track record in dissuading the police from taking further action, at the moment its running at over 90% success rate.

If you would like me to get involved and try and persuade the police to leave it to the insurance companies then I will be happy to assist. Its not too late to try this despite what the police are suggesting.

I assume that your father has a clean driving record.

I charge a fixed fee for this service. ( see our fees here )

Come back to me if you would like my help and I will be happy to assist but we would need to get to work fast.