Community News Articles

Road Traffic Offences

These days it is alarmingly easy to commit a road traffic offence although clearly a person must have been doing something wrong for action to follow. With speed cameras, laser equipment, automatic number plate recognition and general increased vigilance more people are being caught for motoring offences. The common offences are speeding, careless or dangerous driving, failing to stop or report an accident, drink driving or failing to provide a specimen, document offences, construction and use offences and failing to furnish information as to the identity of the driver. There are a host of other offences that can also bring about penalties. Motoring cases comprise over 90% of Magistrates' Courts work load. At times Courts devote whole lists purely to motoring cases and often with a large number of appearances.

Some offences are non endorsable, such as using a vehicle without an MOT certificate. This means that a penalty will be imposed but no points will be placed on the driving licence.

The majority of offences however are endorsable which means that either points will be imposed on a driving licence or discretionary disqualification will follow. For some offences the points are fixed at a certain number but in most cases there is a range of points and the Court must decide where to place the particular offence. For example with careless driving a person can receive between 3 and 9 penalty points whereas with speeding between 3 and 6 points are given. For no insurance between 6 and 8 penalty points are imposed and for failing to stop after an accident or report an accident the range is between 5 and 10 penalty points.

With some offences obligatory disqualification will be imposed. In other words a person must be disqualified from driving if convicted. This happens in drink driving, failure to provide breath specimens and dangerous driving cases most commonly.

Penalty points remain in force for 3 years but remain on a driving licence as a matter of record for an extra year. Once a person incurs 12 penalty points in a 3 year period they will be required to attend Court so that disqualification can be considered. In this situation disqualification can only be avoided if a person can show that they will suffer exceptional hardship if disqualified from driving. Usually this will relate to loss of employment but that factor alone may not be sufficient and it helps to be able to show that loss of home or other such difficulties might follow. The impact that disqualification may have on others is a factor. Fellow employees who may suffer or closure of a business can be considered along with hardship to family. In my experience Courts are not unreasonable in these cases but it is important to produce evidence to support what is being put forward. One very important point to bear in mind is that if disqualification is avoided on these grounds, then the same reasons cannot be used for a 3 year period thereafter. Otherwise a person with a strong need to drive could effectively drive with impunity.

Serious consequences can follow from what on the face of it seem to be fairly innocuous offences. A person in such a situation must decide whether they wish to be legally represented but in some cases Legal Aid may be available.