The police just told us that our son hit a car a month ago - will he get into trouble for not leaving insurance details?

My son (just turned 18) passed his driving test in February of this year. We put him on the car insurance in June. Yesterday the police came round and said that there had been an incident in the local supermarket car park where he has collided with a parked car and not left his details. He says the damage to the other car was zero but neither myself or my wife knew anything about this until yesterday (incident occurred a month ago). What are the likely consequences? He was certainly wrong not to report this but suspect he was very nervous and obviously an inexperienced driver (it would have been one of the first times of driving by himself).

Asked on 3 August 2017 by Richard Brown

Answered by Honest John
The first thing I hope you did was burn his ear off, it is a criminal offence to not exchange details if you have a collision. That's the negative. The positive is, as he was on private property, the Road Traffic Act doesn't apply and there is no duty to exchange details. Even though it was wrong that he didn't, it's unlikely that the police will take any action. It would take the owner of the other vehicle to press charges for anything to happen. I would suggest the best way forward is to ask the police for the other parties details, so that you can contact them to exchange insurance details. I would then ask if they would mind you looking at the "alleged" damage your son has caused, as you may wish to pay out of your own pocket on a "without prejudice" basis. You can then see if your son has damaged the vehicle or not and work out the best way forward.
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