MS90 is the code for failing to give information about the identity of a driver when required to do so. It carries six penalty points, and it is one of the few endorsements that regularly costs people more than the offence it grew out of.
How it happens
A Notice of Intended Prosecution arrives, usually after a speed camera. As registered keeper you have 28 days to say who was driving.
A three point speeding offence becomes a six point MS90 if that notice is not answered properly. Half the points of a totting up ban, for paperwork.
It is rarely deliberate. The notice goes to an old address, arrives while someone is away, is mistaken for junk mail, or genuinely cannot be answered because the vehicle is used by several people and nobody can say with certainty who had it on a particular Tuesday in March.
Why insurers react badly to it
This surprises people more than anything else about an MS90. Insurers often treat it more severely than the speeding offence would have been.
The reason is what the endorsement implies. A speeding conviction says you drove too fast. A failure to identify the driver reads, rightly or wrongly, as non-cooperation, and insurers price it as a conduct issue rather than a driving one.
How long it lasts
The endorsement stays on your licence for four years from the date of conviction, and insurers generally ask about convictions over five years.
As with any conviction, declare it. One that emerges after a claim allows an insurer to reduce the settlement, refuse it, or treat the policy as though it never existed.
If you genuinely cannot identify the driver
The law expects reasonable diligence rather than certainty. If you have taken proper steps to establish who was driving and still cannot say, that can be a defence, but it has to be evidenced and argued at the time.
For businesses the practical answer is record keeping. A vehicle log showing who had which vehicle when turns an impossible question into a simple one. If you run a fleet and have no log, this is the reason to start one.
Do not ignore the notice
Whatever the circumstances, respond within the time limit. Explaining why you cannot name the driver is a very different position from saying nothing at all.
Getting insured afterwards
An MS90 narrows the market considerably, and comparison sites tend to stop returning results altogether. Specialist insurers will still look at it, particularly where the surrounding circumstances are explainable.
Call Alternative Insurance Brokers on 0161 388 2520.
