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Keeper is under no legal duty to name the driver — refusal cannot create liability

For PRIVATE parking charges there is no equivalent of the criminal-law duty (s.172 Road Traffic Act 1988) to identify the driver. POFA 2012 Schedule 4 merely requires the operator to INVITE the keeper to pay or to name the driver (paragraphs 8(2)(e) and 9(2)(e)) — it imposes no obligation to respond, and declining to name the driver carries no sanction and creates no adverse inference. If the operator has complied with every Schedule 4 condition, the keeper is liable AS KEEPER regardless; but if any condition has failed, the operator's only remaining route is against the driver, whom it must identify and prove on the balance of probabilities. Operator letters routinely imply the keeper 'must' name the driver — that is wrong in law. Complements UK-NUC-011 (POFA compliance failure) and is the mirror-image of UK-LEGAL-004 (voluntarily naming the driver to shift liability).

Legal basis

Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, paragraphs 8(2)(e) and 9(2)(e): the notice to keeper must 'invite' the keeper to pay or to notify the creditor of the name and current address of the driver — an invitation, not a duty; paragraph 4 confers keeper liability only where the Schedule 4 conditions (paras 5, 6, 11, 12) are all met; paragraph 5(1)(b): the creditor must lack both the name of the driver and a current address for service. Contrast s.172 Road Traffic Act 1988, which applies to criminal road-traffic offences, not private contractual parking charges. England and Wales only.

How to identify this in your case

Applies when the customer is the registered keeper, was not (or does not admit to being) the driver, and the operator's correspondence demands or implies they must identify the driver. Strongest when paired with a concrete POFA defect (late notice, missing prescribed content, non-POFA-worded notice): then the operator has no keeper route and no identified driver. Never use this ground to assert who was or was not driving — the appeal simply declines to identify the driver, which the keeper is entitled to do.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at.

I am the registered keeper of the vehicle. I am under no legal obligation to identify the driver of a vehicle in respect of a private parking charge: paragraphs 8(2)(e) and 9(2)(e) of Schedule 4 to the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 merely require you to invite the keeper to pay or to name the driver, and no adverse inference arises from declining that invitation. You may recover this charge from me as keeper only if you have complied strictly with every applicable condition of Schedule 4, and I put you to strict proof of such compliance. Absent full compliance, your only route of recovery is against the driver, whom you must identify and prove was driving. I decline to name the driver, as I am entitled to do. Please cancel the charge.

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Keeper is under no legal duty to name the driver — refusal cannot create liability

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

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