Last week sometime i was on my way to picking my nephew up from school, and at school hours the cars are parked almost blocking the road. I clipped a wing mirror , and my anxiety prevailed. I was too scared to stop so i carried on the the school . However i went back to the road it happened on with some courage ( possibly 20 minutes later ) and i could not make contact with the owner of the vehicle as it wasn't there.

I know it's my duty to inform the police 24hours after an "accident" if details cannot be exchanged and i really didn't think anything more of it until today. A policeman was knocking at my door , i did not answer the door as i had just gotten out of the bath . So unless they are looking for witnesses for a crime that's taken place on my street I'm guessing this is there line of protocol.

What is likely going to happen ? Is it too late to sort this out without getting points on my license and a fine? I'm guessing they are only perusing it because they have a license plate and a witness.

Thanks in advance and i would appreciate not getting any abuse this was a genuine mistake.

I know it's my duty to inform the police 24hours after an "accident" if details cannot be exchanged

In fact, before that, it was your duty to stop and you committed an offence as soon as you failed to do so. Your duty is not to report the matter 24 hours afterwards but as soon as possible and in any case within 24 hours. So that failure has compounded the wrongdoing.

But first things first. Before any prosecution can take place the police have to establish who was driving. That may be why an officer visited your house (or, of course, it may be unrelated). Being unable to contact you they may instead write to you (assuming you are the Registered Keeper) asking you to provide the driver's details. You’ll have to wait and see. As far as I can recall Failing to Stop/Report is not an offence for which a fixed penalty is available so if action is taken against you it will be dealt with in court. If it is, Failing to stop/report is one of the very few driving offences for which custody is an option. However, the incident as you describe it is at the very lowest end of seriousness and the guideline penalty is a fine of a week’s income (reduced by a third if you plead guilty) and either five or six penalty points.

As an aside I’m not sure the police (or a court) will view this as a genuine mistake. You deliberately left the scene knowing that a collision had occurred and failed to report the matter as soon as possible. (If you had it may have saved your bacon).

You failed to stop which is a criminal offence.

The 24 hours comes to you cannot contact the owner/driver at the time. (24 hours is a myth anyways)

What that shows is you took reasonable attempt to wait/contact owner/driver. You then tell the police all the info you have,ie car reg, time/place and they will trace them.

What you did is leave the scene and even though you returned 20 mins later the other vehicle had left.

You have not taken reasonable steps.

If the police have visited you and it is connected with Thi incident, then I would presume there is a witness who took your car reg.

You may be charged with failure to stop etc etc, it just depends on the CPS

Thanks for the responses guys, is it too late to sort this civilly? It was less than a week ago .

I'm sure that if you did infact damage a wing mirror and offered to pay for the repair, the police would take the steps of not following up on the matter.

Its not really in the public interest to pursue such a matter.

Its only very minor damage and easily fixable

The level of damage is not the issue here. It is the fact that you failed to stop, left the scene and did not report the incident.The police may take the view that you are now only offering to settle the matter because you have been traced. Very often the police may simply be trying to trace you at the request of the Third Party.The only way you can find out what their intentions are is to contact them.