28 penalty points on her licence and still permitted to drive, legally. How is that possible?

Most motorists know, or should know, that if they acquire 12 penalty points within a three year period, they will be disqualified from driving for a minimum period of six months.

Mark Bromley recently represented a lady in one of our local courts, who, in a week in April 2020, had flashed the same speed camera on the same stretch of road in Staffordshire six times within seven days. She was taking her partner to work in his new job along an unfamiliar route. Each of the six sets of correspondence from Staffordshire police arrived on the same day and the horrified client immediately drove to the stretch of road in question and found the speed camera hidden amongst trees. She also at that point realised that the stretch of road had a 30 mph speed limit.

On the day that she appeared in court, she already had nine penalty points on her driving record for three other speeding offences. For the six new speeding charges a total of 19 penalty points were imposed upon her driving record taking the total number of live points to 28.

Mr Bromley explained to the court that this lady‘s partner did not drive and the almost inevitable disqualification from driving would mean that he would lose his job and this lady would also lose her night time job because she would not be able to drive to work and back. Mr Bromley skilfully argued that to disqualify this lady would cause exceptional hardship to her and her partner and if the magistrates agreed with that submission then they could use their discretion and not disqualify this lady at all.

The argument was successful and persuaded the magistrates that exceptional hardship would be caused and they did not disqualify her from driving.

If you find yourself facing a penalty points disqualification then please contact Turncock’s Defence Solicitors Ltd who will be pleased to advise you and represent you in court if necessary.