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KNOW YOUR RIGHTS


that I can present an exceptional hardship argument to stop the ban and I was all ready to go to court in a few weeks’ time with all my supporting letters and evidence. But I’ve just received another speeding fine through the post and I’m worried now I’ve ruined my chances. What can I do?


A Q


can be given in evidence”. The last part of that caution: “anything you say can be given in evidence”, is key. If you go into an interview and admit that you overtook him and then applied your brakes to force him to move back, then they may use that as evidence of road rage and brake checking, which may well be enough for a court to convict you of dangerous driving. Once you admit it in the interview, it is evidence.


Dangerous driving carries a minimum 12-month disquali- fication, an extended retest at the end of it and possibly community orders or custody. It is a very serious offence. You may be better at this stage either refusing to attend the interview (as long as it is a voluntary interview) or attending but answering no comment to all questions asked. At least then you are not giving them any evidence at all. We would of course have to find out what evidence they have against you, whether it is dash cam or just a statement from this other driver. If it is just a statement, that other driver may not be willing to incriminate himself just to see you prosecuted, as he was driving dangerously as well. But if they have dash cam then we could be in trouble.


Another area to look at is the Notice of Intended Prosecution. Dangerous driving requires a NIP to be given to the registered keeper or the driver either in writing within 14 days of the offence or verbally at the roadside. So if this happened more than 14 days ago and you hadn’t received anything in writing, then they could be barred from prosecuting.


The aim here would be to try to persuade the police to take no further action against you, either because they don’t have enough evidence or if no NIP was served. I would very much like to make representations to the officer on your behalf. But if the evidence against you is strong and overwhelming, we may be better placed to concentrate on simply trying to limit the damage and see if we can get it down to careless driving, which carries three to nine points or a discretionary ban rather than a 12-month ban which is accompanied with dangerous driving.


MARCH 2021


This does make it a bit more difficult, but we have options. You are entirely correct that if you accumulate 12 or more points in a three-year period, then you are at risk of a six-month totting


ban. You can then argue that a ban would cause you exceptional hardship and if the courts agree, they have the discretion not to disqualify. If exceptional hardship is found they leave the points on your licence but just don’t ban you, so you would simply be driving around with 12 or more points on your licence.


The problem is that you can only present one argument on the same grounds every three years, so if you “use up” your argument at court in a couple of weeks you will be unable to use the argument a second time when the new matter comes through and inevitably, you will be disqualified.


So we have one of two options. The first is to try to delay the matter currently at court for as long as possible and speed up the new matter as quickly as possible. That way there is a hope we can get them both to court at the same time, tie them in together at one hearing and then we can present one argument covering both cases.


The second option, if that fails, is to persuade the court in a couple of weeks to give you a short disqualification instead of the points. For an endorsable offence the court has the power to impose either points or a disqualification. So if we manage to persuade them to ban you for, for example 14 days, it means that’s instead of the points, so you never reach 12, you’re not at risk of totting and don’t have to present an exceptional hardship argument meaning we can save our exceptional hardship argument for the new matter.


But either way it seems time is pressing, so we have to get to work quickly.


This impartial advice has been provided by Patterson Law Solicitors 01626 359800 www.pattersonlaw.co.uk


87


I have nine points on my licence already and I got another speeding ticket a few months ago. They took me to court because they were going to put me on 12 points and ban me for six months. I know


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