KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
In this month’s edition we feature more road traffic issues relevant to the trade supplied by Patterson Law. These questions are based on real enquiries that we have received from professional drivers this month. If you need any advice on motoring matters please email
e.patterson@
pattersonlaw.co.uk or call 01626 359800 for free legal advice.
Q A
My insurance was up for renewal, and I went onto a comparison website and took out a policy with a new company. The following week a police officer stopped me and said I was uninsured, I don’t know
why but they also seized my vehicle. I have now received a fixed penalty of six points and I don’t know whether to accept it. I have spoken to the insurance company and they have told me that they cancelled because I did not send them proof of no claims but I don’t remember them asking. Should I accept the fixed penalty?
This is a case where you may be able to avoid the points, so you will have to consider whether you want to try to challenge this in court.
At court you will be able to present a Special Reasons which, if successful, means the court don’t impose points. If
you wanted to consider this option then we would reject the fixed penalty request that the matter is referred to court.
In due course, you would be sent court papers asking you to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. An offence of driving without insurance is a strict liability offence. It is very black or white with no grey area in between. You are either insured to drive or you are not, and if you are not, you would be guilty of an offence of using a vehicle without insurance, despite you being unaware that the policy had been can- celled at the time. You would therefore be guilty of the offence so you would need to enter a guilty plea and we would request that it is listed for special reasons to be con- sidered.
You would be required to attend court to give your evidence on the incident. Ultimately we would be required to satisfy the court that you held a genuine and honest belief that you were insured to drive at the time and that the belief was based on reasonable grounds. It would be helpful to look at why you were not aware of the request for proof of no claims or the cancellation itself, and it may also be possible to liaise with the insurance company to see if there had been any errors on their part in communicating with you.
If the court feel that it was reasonable for you to believe you were insured at the time of the offence then they can use their discretion not to impose any penalty points against you,
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though you may still receive a financial penalty. Do be aware though that if you choose to take the matter to court and the Special Reasons Argument is unsuccessful you would be at risk of between 6-8 penalty points and a financial penalty. The financial penalty at court will be means tested and so it may be higher or lower than what is being offered in the fixed penalty, dependent on your income.
Q A
I have nine penalty points on my driving licence and I have just received a Notice of Intended Prosecution from the police for a speeding offence doing 43mph in a 30mph limit. Will I be banned from driving?
First it is important that you ensure you respond to any request for driver information that you may have received with the notice. If you do not nominate the driver you would risk being charged with an offence
of failing to provide driver information and speeding which would put you at risk of even further penalties. Failing to provide driver information carries six penalty points and so it is really important that you give these details to police before the deadline.
But for the speeding offence alone you would unfortunately be at risk of a disqualification. Due to the speed alleged, you are at risk of receiving one of two types of ban for this offence but you do have options available to avoid a lengthy disqualification period.
The speed recorded would place you in the second category of the court’s sentencing guidelines. For any speed between 41mph-50mph in a 30mph zone, the guidelines would suggest either 4-6 penalty points or a discretionary disqual- ification of between 7-28 days. Given that the speed itself is a relatively lower speed we may be able to persuade the court to impose a short sharp ban.
But if you were to receive penalty points you would be at risk of receiving a six month totting disqualification for accumu- lating 12 or more penalty points on your driving licence within a three-year period. If the Court did impose the points, the only way to avoid the totting disqualification would be to show the court that not just you but those around you would suffer exceptional hardship as a result of a six-month dis- qualification.
If the court is satisfied that the hardship that would be caused is exceptional, then they can use their discretion not to impose any disqualification period at all. This would mean that you would remain on 13-15 penalty points but would keep your entitlement to drive. You would have to be extremely careful moving forward because you can only rely on the same grounds for this type of argument once every three years. If you were to commit another offence before the points expire then you would be at risk of the totting ban again.
APRIL 2022
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