Road traffic

Evidence - compulsory admission made in response to statutory notice - use in evidence no infringement of right to fair trialDPP v Wilson: DC (Lord Justice Rose and Mr Justice Sullivan): 7 March 2001Acting on information from a notice sent under section 172(2)(a) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 requiring the registered keeper of a vehicle to identify its driver at the time of an alleged traffic offence, a notice was sent out to the defendant, who was employed by the firm which had rented the vehicle, under section 172(2)(b) of the 1988 Act, which required 'any other person' to give 'any information which it is in his power to give and may lead to the identification of the driver'.The defendant then confirmed that he had been the driver.

At his trial, the district judge ruled that the use in evidence of the defendant's response to the notice was unfair under section 78 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 because, among other things, the notice had not contained any caution.

The prosecutor appealed.David Perry (instructed by CPS, Lincolnshire) for the prosecutor.

Philip Head (instructed by Nelsons, Grantham) for the defendant.Held, allowing the appeal, that a person's response to a section 172(2)(b) notice was specifically exempted from the privilege against self-incrimination by paragraph 10 of code C of the code of practice issued under section 66 of the 1984 Act; and that, despite its wider wording, there was no valid distinction between such a notice and one addressed to the vehicle's keeper under section 172(2)(a), which had been held in Stott (Procurator Fiscal, Dunfermline) v Brown [2000] The Times, 6 December not to infringe the right to a fair trial under article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.