Tesla convicted repeatedly for failing to help UK police with investigations
Tesla has been taken to court multiple times over the past two years for not identifying the drivers of its vehicles to police
Elon Musk’s Tesla car company has been convicted at least 18 times and ordered to pay more than £20,000 for repeatedly failing to co-operate with UK police forces.
The British arm of the electric car giant has faced multiple criminal court proceedings over the past two years linked to allegations of road traffic offences.
In each case, when British police officers tried to track down the details of speeding Tesla drivers, their letters went unanswered and the forces ended up prosecuting the company itself.
The latest conviction, which ended in a £1,000 fine plus an order for £120 costs and a £400 victim surcharge, was handed out at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates Court on January 6.
South Wales Police wrote to Tesla Financial Services at its offices in Manchester, in a bid to identify the driver of a Tesla which had been speeding at 80mph on the M4 near to the village of Groes-faen in Wales on July 4 last year.
The company is listed as the registered keeper of the vehicle, and police said there had been no response to a written notice of intended prosecution.
A charge of failing to identify the driver of the vehicle when required was then brought by the police force.
Court papers show a Tesla company director, Becky Hodgson, pleaded guilty for the firm by email in late November, saying it had tried to enter the plea online but “encountered a technical issue on the Online Plea Service portal”.
Although the company was admitting the criminal charge, Ms Hodgson went on to suggest in her email that it had actually complied with the police request.
“We can confirm that a nomination would have been sent to you via post”, she wrote. “Our internal process was followed, and the nomination was sent via 2nd class post as per our records”.
At least 18 convictions recorded against Tesla Financial Services have been identified by the Press Association since the start of 2024, including prosecutions brought by the Metropolitan Police, Hampshire Constabulary, and Thames Valley Police.
Seventeen cases have already been sentenced, while Tesla Financial Services pleaded guilty last week to an 18th offence of failing to identify a driver. That case is set to be sentenced at a later date at Bath Magistrates Court.
In one of the concluded cases, a Tesla driver was clocked on a speed camera at almost 100mph on the A3 in Petersfield in Hampshire.
But due to police letters going unanswered, the speeding driver was not identified and the company received a conviction with a fine instead.
Another Tesla driver was caught speeding three times, potentially putting them on the cusp of a disqualification – if they had been identified.
Letters from police which went unanswered have been addressed to Tesla Financial Services at luxury offices in Hammersmith, a service centre in West Drayton, west London, and the office in Manchester.
In the cases identified, fines, costs and court fees totalling £20,686 have been imposed by magistrates sitting in the Single Justice Procedure.
In the last two weeks, almost 4,000 defendants have been convicted across the courts of England and Wales for failing to identify the driver of a vehicle under police investigation, leading to fines ranging from £1 to £1,000.
