Whilst I can fully understand them being prosecuted, fined and even banned if their tyres were below the legal limit (and caught when driving), it is IMHO not right to do so if the tyres are deemed legal when pulled over or checked by Plod. After all, that's the whole point of the definition of them being legal or not.
I article you cite appears to say the prosecution was really due to the tyres not being legal at the time of the accident, which would be grounds for prosecution, especially when they were cited as needing replacement very soon at the previous year's MOT.
Saying that, if another driver (as long as they are allowed to drive that car including with proper insurance cover) is driving, they are ultimately responsible for checking the car is roadworthy before using it.
Whilst people cannot be reasonably expected to perform the type of checks done on an MOT, cheking the tyres to see if they are in good enough condition and to the correct pressure would be one of the 'reasonable' checks most people would undertake. A responsible person would then had said 'no to driving the car and called them both a cab to take them home and told their 'friend' to get the tyres replaced and anything else wrong with it seen to before driving again, and that they would report them to Plod if they drove again without fixing any serious problems (MOT failure type).
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