Sentencing Act 2002, ss 129B, 129E
If you repeatedly use someone else’s vehicle (your parents’ car, for example) to commit traffic offences, their vehicle could be confiscated even though they weren’t driving the vehicle. In these cases, the law treats them as a “substitute” for you.
The first time you commit an offence for which a vehicle could be confiscated, the courts will send the owner a written warning. If you’re convicted of another of those offences within the next four years, and you used a vehicle owned by that other person, that vehicle can be confiscated from them.
If a judge makes a confiscation order against a “substitute” person after a second offence, the person has 20 working days to appeal the order on various grounds, including, for example:
that the vehicle had been stolen from them
that they weren’t the owner at the relevant time
that they took all reasonable steps to prevent the driver committing the offence, or
that they didn’t know that the driver would commit the offence and they couldn’t reasonably have known.