69Liability of vehicle owner for parking offences

69 Liability of vehicle owner for parking offences

69 Liability of vehicle owner for parking offences

(1) In this section—

owner of a vehicle includes the responsible person for the vehicle within the meaning of the Road Transport Act 2013.

parking offence means the offence committed by a person who, in contravention of the regulations made under this Act—

(a) moors or parks a vehicle, or

(b) causes or permits a vehicle to be moored or parked or to stand or wait.

vehicle includes motor vehicle and vessel.

(2) If a parking offence occurs in relation to a vehicle, the person who at the time of the occurrence of the offence is the owner of the vehicle is, by virtue of this section, guilty of an offence under the regulation concerned as if the owner were the actual offender guilty of the parking offence unless—

(a) in any case where the parking offence is dealt with under section 70—the person satisfies the authorised officer referred to in the notice served under that section that the vehicle was at the relevant time a stolen vehicle or a vehicle illegally taken or used, or

(b) in any other case—the court is satisfied that the vehicle was, at the relevant time, a stolen vehicle or a vehicle illegally taken or used.

(3) This section does not affect the liability of an actual offender in respect of a parking offence but, if a penalty has been imposed on or recovered from any person in relation to any parking offence, no further penalty may be imposed on or recovered from any other person for the offence.

(4) Despite subsection (2), an 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 70, the owner—

(i) within 21 days after service on the owner of a notice under that section alleging that the owner has been guilty of that offence, supplies, in the form required by the notice, 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 authorised officer that the owner does not know, and cannot with reasonable diligence ascertain, that name and address, or