9:32 am, August 27, 2024
A used car dealership has been ordered to pay more than £1,000 after it failed to reveal the identity of a BMW driver suspected of a motoring offence.
The Swindon-based Greenacre Cars appeared at court earlier this month charged with a single count of failing to give information about a driver of a vehicle when required by Wiltshire Police.
The business, which is based on Barnfield Road, pleaded guilty to the offence at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on August 16 and was slapped with a hefty fine by the bench.
Magistrates fined the company £666 and ordered it to pay costs of £90, as well as a £266 victim surcharge, taking the total paid to £1,022.
The Swindon Advertiser reports that the ‘purveyor of quality used cars’ failed to respond to several requests for comment.
The business is not the first automotive retailer to appear at the court for failing to give information, following a number of similar cases over recent years.
In June we brought you the news that struggling used car dealer LR Trans Ltd had been ordered to pay a total of £1,510 for an identical charge at Worcester Magistrates’ Court.
The same court also fined Morris Autos and TJ Vickers £660 apiece last year, after they admitted to separate counts.
More recently, Southampton-based Vansco Ltd was ordered to pay a whopping £1,660 after claiming it could not identify the driver of a delivery van due to GDPR.
Under section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, failure to identify a driver is not an imprisonable offence and is instead punishable by a fine and up to six penalty points on a defendant’s driving licence.
