Transport Administration Act 1988

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.

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.

The owner of a vehicle is not guilty of an offence by virtue of this section if the owner satisfies—

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

in any other case—the court,

The owner of a vehicle is not, by virtue of this section, guilty of an offence if—

in any case where the offence is dealt with under section 117, the owner—

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

satisfies such an authorised officer that the owner did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that name and address, or

in any other case, the owner—

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

satisfies the court that the owner did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that name and address.

Despite any other provision of this Act, an approved nomination notice may be provided by the owner of a vehicle served with a penalty notice within 90 days of the notice being served on the owner if the approved nomination notice is provided in the circumstances specified in section 23AA or 23AB of the Fines Act 1996.

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.

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.

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).

In this section—

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

in the case of a motor vehicle—

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

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.