What Drivers Often Misunderstand about Penalty Points and Disqualification Risk

Many driving offences can come with penalty points on your licence, and accumulating enough points in any three year period can result in an immediate and automatic driving ban. Despite this risk, penalty points are often misunderstood and subject to a number of common misconceptions that can leave drivers believing that they are not at risk, when in fact they are.

Myths that often arise concerning penalty points include that you will not receive any for a first offence, that you can only receive three at a time, and that they will no longer apply after three years. In fact, while some of these mistakes are based in fact, none of them are strictly true. Here, the expert motoring solicitors at JMW outline exactly how penalty points work and what you need to understand to protect your driving licence from the risk of a ban.

The Myths Surrounding Speeding Offences

A speeding offence is committed any time you drive above the speed limit on a UK road, including driving at just 1 mph above the posted limit. In practice, most local police forces apply the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s recommendation of only issuing speeding fines and other penalties when a driver exceeds the speed limit by 10% plus 2 mph. However, you may be charged with an offence if you are caught driving at any speed above the limit.

The 12-Point Limit

A common point of confusion is the belief that a driver is only at risk of a driving ban once they exceed 12 penalty points. In reality, the law surrounding disqualification is far more nuanced. For most licence holders, receiving 12 penalty points results in an automatic ban for a minimum of six months. These points remain valid on your driving licence for three years for totting-up purposes.

So, while it is true to say that “totting up” 12 or more penalty points within a three-year period usually triggers an automatic driving ban, this is not the only circumstance where you may face disqualification. The court possesses the discretionary power to order disqualification for a single driving offence, even if you have a clean driving record.

For many drivers, the threat of disqualification arises from a single incident of dangerous driving or drink driving. These are serious offences that carry an obligatory disqualification. This means the Magistrates’ Court must impose a driving ban for a minimum period of 12 months, unless there are very specific “special reasons” relating to the offence itself that allow the court to vary the sentence.

On the other hand, some drivers do not realise that even relatively minor offences come with points. Speeding at even 1 mph over the limit is an offence that can come with a minimum of three penalty points, which means that you could face a driving ban after only four incidents in three years.

Avoiding a Ban with 12 Points

While it will not work in every case, it is sometimes possible to avoid a ban through an ‘exceptional hardship’ argument. This means showing the court that the normal consequences of a ban would be outweighed by the extreme hardship it would cause to you or, more importantly, others who rely on you. A certain amount of inconvenience is expected as the result of a ban, so this requires a strong argument to persuade the court, which may hinge on:

• The impact on family members who rely on the driver for essential transport where public transport is not an option – for example, to medical appointments.
• The potential loss of employment leading to an inability to pay a mortgage.
• The potential collapse of a business that employs others, where the driver’s weekly income is vital.

Special reasons

Where a conviction cannot be avoided, special reasons can be presented to persuade a court not to impose points or a disqualification. Special reasons are mitigating circumstances connected directly to the offence that show that you had limited responsibility for your lack of insurance – for example, because you were not notified that the policy had not renewed automatically. Whilst this does not avoid a conviction, it can avoid the imposition of points or a disqualification. Similarly, while driving in an emergency is not a defence, it might be raised later as part of a special reasons argument at sentencing.

Points Expire After Three Years

While points remain on your driving licence for only three years for the purposes of totting up offences, this does not mean that they are removed after this stage. In fact, points stay on your driving record for four or eleven years, depending on the offence. While they will no longer lead to a disqualification under totting up rules, they can still be viewed by the police and other relevant authorities. As such, points may continue to impact your insurance premiums or be taken into account during sentencing for other offences even after three years have passed.

New Drivers

While the rules above apply to most drivers, those who are within their first two years of passing their test actually face much stricter penalties. In these cases, you only need to accrue six points within a two-year period for the DVLA to automatically revoke your full licence. For some offences – even those that do not seem especially serious – you could receive six points all at once. For example, being caught holding and using a mobile phone while driving carries an automatic six points and a fixed penalty. For new drivers, this single offence will result in the immediate revocation of their licence.

This does not only apply to points received after you passed. If a driver commits an offence while learning, those penalty points are recorded. As such, if you accrue three penalty points on a provisional licence and then gain another three shortly after passing your test, you will lose your entitlement to drive in the same way.

This is more serious than a driving ban, because having your licence revoked means that you will need to start again from scratch. This means that you must reapply for a provisional licence and pass both your theory and practical tests again before you will be legally allowed to drive.

Speed Awareness Courses

Some drivers believe that they will automatically be offered the chance to attend a speed awareness course for a first offence. At their discretion, the police can offer drivers who have been caught speeding the chance to attend a speed awareness course instead of receiving penalty points on their licence or paying a fine. Awareness courses are sometimes available for other types of offences (such as drink driving or careless driving) and may also reduce the penalties imposed in these cases.

However, the offer is made entirely at the discretion of the police force in question, and there is no obligation to do so. Generally, if you were driving at more than 10 mph above the speed limit, or have attended a speed awareness course in the last three years, the offer will not be available.

You should work with experienced driving offence solicitors in mounting an exceptional hardship argument, or if you wish to defend yourself against an alleged offence and prevent points from being added to your licence. You should also know that you cannot use the same grounds for exceptional hardship twice within a three-year period. If you successfully avoid a disqualification period once, you must remain incredibly careful, as further penalty points will almost certainly lead to a driving ban.