Hi there. Under section 34 of the Road Traffic (Administration) Act 2008 (WA), the police may request a person to give information that may identify a driver in charge of a vehicle involved in a traffic offence. It is important to remember that the police are under no obligation to provide evidence of the identity of the driver involved in an offence, as identifying the vehicle will suffice.

As the vehicle is licensed in your name, the police will ask you to provide the information and you are expected to comply with the request. This means that, if you have or could have reasonably ascertained the identity of the driver at the relevant time, you must provide this information to the police, otherwise you will be committing an offence. This may require you to look back through personal calendars, diary entries, messages, receipts, etc, to determine what you (or the actual driver) was doing at the relevant time. After doing this, if you still cannot determine the identity of the driver, you may not be in breach of section 34. However, a lot will depend on your particular circumstances and what the court believes to be ‘reasonable’ in your personal situation.

Separate to section 34 is another obligation in section 35. Section 35 requires you to take reasonable measures or make reasonable arrangements to ensure that you, as the responsible person for the vehicle, will be able to comply with the police’s identity request. For example, if a logbook is used for the vehicle, the person responsible for the vehicle must ensure that the logbook is kept up to date so that that the driver at any particular time can be identified. From the information you provided, it is unlikely that section 35 is relevant to your situation.

Suggested way forward

You need to comply with all police requests. If you want legal advice on what steps you need to take to ensure compliance, you should speak to a criminal lawyer. By pressing the “Consult a Lawyer” button, LawAdvisor can help you search for experienced lawyers and obtain fee proposals for their services. Costs for legal advice and representation will vary between providers based on experience and the scope of services.