Road Traffic Act 1960

242 Evidence by certificate

(1) In any proceedings in England or Wales for an offence to which section two hundred and thirty-two of this Act applies a certificate in the prescribed form, purporting to be signed by a constable and certifying that a person specified in the certificate stated to the constable—

(a) that a particular motor vehicle was being driven by, or belonged to, that person on a particular occasion; or

(b) that a particular motor vehicle belonged on a particular occasion to a firm in which that person also stated that he was at the time of the statement a partner; or

(c) that a particular motor vehicle belonged on a particular occasion to a corporation of which that person also stated that he was at the time of the statement a director, officer or employee,

shall be admissible as evidence for the purpose of determining by whom the vehicle was being driven, or to whom it belonged, as the case may be, on that occasion.

(2) Nothing in the foregoing subsection shall be deemed to make a certificate admissible as evidence in proceedings for an offence except in a case where and to the like extent to which oral evidence to the like effect would have been admissible in those proceedings.

(3) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall be deemed to make a certificate admissible as evidence in proceedings for an offence—

(a) unless a copy thereof has, not less than seven days before the hearing or trial, been served in the prescribed manner on the person charged with the offence ; or

(b) if that person, not later than three days before the hearing or trial or within such further time as the court may in special circumstances allow, serves a notice in the prescribed form and manner on the prosecutor requiring attendance at the trial of the person who signed the certificate.

(4) In this section "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made by the Secretary of State by statutory instrument.