(1) If a parking offence occurs in relation to any vehicle, the person who at
the time of the occurrence of the offence is the owner of the vehicle shall,
by virtue of this section, be guilty of the parking offence as if the person
were the actual offender.
(2) Nothing in this section affects the liability
of the actual offender, but if a penalty has been imposed on or recovered from
any person in relation to a parking offence no further penalty shall be
imposed on or recovered from any other person in relation to that offence.
(3) The owner of a vehicle is not guilty of an offence by virtue of this
section if the owner satisfies--
(a) in any case where the offence is dealt
with under section 117--an authorised officer described in the penalty notice
served under that section, or
(b) in any other case--the court,
that the
vehicle was at the relevant time a stolen vehicle or a vehicle illegally taken
or used.
(4) The owner of a vehicle is not, by virtue of this section, guilty
of an offence if--
(a) in any case where the offence is dealt with under
section 117, the owner--
(i) within 21 days after service on the owner of a
penalty notice in respect of the offence, gives an authorised officer referred
to in the notice an approved nomination notice containing the name and address
of the person who was in charge of the vehicle at all relevant times relating
to the offence, or
(ii) satisfies such an authorised officer that the owner
did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that
name and address, or
(i) within 21 days
after service on the owner of a court attendance notice for the offence, gives
the informant an approved nomination notice containing the name and address of
the person who was in charge of the vehicle at all relevant times relating to
the offence, or
(ii) satisfies the court that the owner did not know and
could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that name and address.
(4B) If the owner of a vehicle
supplies an approved nomination notice to an authorised officer or an
informant for the purposes of this section, an authorised officer or informant
may, by written notice served on the owner, require the owner to supply a
statutory declaration for use in court proceedings that verifies the
nomination contained in the approved nomination notice.
(5) Any such
statutory declaration if produced in any proceedings against the person named
in it and in relation to the offence in respect of which the statutory
declaration was supplied is evidence that that person was in charge of the
vehicle at all relevant times relating to that offence.
(6) Any such
approved nomination notice or statutory declaration which relates to more than
one offence is taken not to be an approved nomination notice or a statutory
declaration under, or for the purposes of, subsection (4) or (4B).
(a) every person who is the
owner or joint owner or part owner of the vehicle and any person who has the
use of the vehicle under a hire-purchase agreement (but not the lessor under
any such agreement), and
(b) in the case of a motor vehicle--
(i) a
registered operator of the vehicle within the meaning of the
Road Transport Act 2013, except where the person has sold or otherwise
disposed of the vehicle and has complied with any applicable provisions of
that Act or the former Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Act 1997 (or the
statutory rules made under either Act) in respect of the sale or disposal, and
(ii) in the case of a vehicle to which a trader's plate within the meaning of
the Road Transport Act 2013 is affixed--the person to whom the trader's plate
has been issued.
