Disqualified driving – ‘Totting up’
If you have been driving for under two years, and you are caught speeding, your licence will be endorsed with a minimum of three points. If this happens again, and the points add up to six, you will lose your license and have to retake your driving test to regain…
Difficult mitigation
I recently represented a client at Guildford Magistrates’ Court charged with speeding – 96 in a 70. He already had six penalty points on his licence and faced disqualification if he received penalty points in line with the sentencing guidelines. He narrowly avoided disqualification after I informed the court of…
Avoiding Disqualification
My footballer client fully expected to be disqualified at the Magistrates’ court last Thursday. He had nine points on his licence and collected a further five for a speeding offence. Normally he would have been disqualified for a minimum of six months and receive a hefty fine. Fortunately, he had…
Legal Argument
My client had accumulated 18 points on his licence and was disqualified for 15 months as a totter. At the Crown Court on appeal, a carefully worded technical argument on the interpretation of the statute was sufficient to persuade the court to reduce the disqualification to 9 months! Sometimes investing…
Astonishing Cheek
Astonishing Cheek I represented a client today at the Crown Court. The history of this case shows how careful you have to be in choosing a lawyer. Here is the story: The client committed a series of minor traffic offences and a solicitor was instructed. The solicitor did not bother…
Speeding totter keeps licence
A surgeon kept his driving licence despite being caught driving at twice the speed limit, taking him up to 12 penalty points, according to the Daily Telegraph 25/1/12. Magistrates decided that the impact of a driving ban on his patients would be too great. This is an example of exceptional…
Duty to give information
Duty to give information Road Traffic 1988 s. 172. R. (Purnell) v Snaresbrook Crown Court In a recent driving case, the registered keeper of a vehicle successfully appealed against the ruling of a Crown Court judge. The Crown Court had applied the wrong legal test when interpreting the duty imposed…
Penalty points disqualification
Penalty points disqualification; Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, s. 35. When a person’s penalty points number 12 or more the Court must order him to be disqualified for not less than a minimum period (usually six months), unless exceptional hardship would follow from the disqualification; or alternatively, mitigating circumstances may…