“Will I be banned if I have 12 or more points on my licence? DVLA statistics, suggest not!”

Official figures released by the DVLA this week confirm that there are hundreds of motorists driving around with dozens of penalty points on their licence. These motorists must have successfully pleaded ‘exceptional hardship’ in order to avoid a “totting up” ban – allowing them to continue driving on the roads with twelve or more penalty points on their licence^[1].

The fact that a small proportion of the nation’s drivers have been able to avoid the “totting up” ban is nothing new and this firm has been involved in saving the licence of thousands of drivers facing this penalty over the years. What is amazing, however, is the number of points some motorist have accumulated yet are still permitted to drive.

The largest demographic of motorists driving with more than twelve points come from Greater London (1,385).

Coming in at second place are drivers from the West Midlands and West Yorkshire, both with 533 motorists with more than 12 points on their licence, who are still on the road.

1.     Greater London – 922

2.     West Midlands – 359

3.     Greater Manchester – 333

There are 6,621 motorists still on the roads who are driving with 12 points endorsed on their licence.

1.     Greater London – 127

2.     West Midlands – 49

3.     West Yorkshire – 49

There are 993 motorists nationwide still on the roads who are driving with 15 points endorsed on their licence.

Greater London – 67

West Yorkshire – 7

West Midlands – 4

There are 337 motorists still on the roads who are driving with 18 points endorsed on their licence. The total number of drivers who are driving with 20 or more penalty points currently stands at 233 nationwide.

In case you were wondering, according to the DVLA data released, the most points that any one motorist has is 62 and they are living somewhere in the beautiful pastures of West Yorkshire. How they have managed this is a mystery but we would love to have been a fly on the wall to watch that case!

If a motorist accrues 12 or more points on their licence within a three year period, they will be facing a disqualification of 6 months, unless they have previously been disqualified for a period of 56 days or more – in which case the disqualification will be 12 months or longer if there is more than one previous disqualification.

What the data revealed today does not reveal is what the points received were for. Motorists may  have received points for a number of minor offences with multiple points endorsed on a licence over time; but sometimes heftier  points can be  imposed for single offences such as driving without insurance (6-8 points) failing to report an accident (5-10 points) or failing to furnish driver details (6 points).  Arguably, none of these scenarios involve driver skill, yet a motorist would still have to plead with the court that they should be allowed to continue to drive.

Individuals facing the totting up rules can plead “exceptional hardship” in order to avoid the ban, but if no ban is imposed, they will still accumulate the points on their licence.

Exceptional hardship arguments usually pivot on emotional and financial hardships, particularly of others affected – for example if the driver cares for elderly family members or requires their licence to drive for their job. So long as the driver can demonstrate that exceptional hardship will be experienced by them or by others around them, this normally would persuade a Court to depart from the starting point of a 6 month ban.

Loss of employment alone would be highly unlikely to suffice as this would be an inevitable consequence of a driving ban for many motorists who face the totting up rules. This would most likely not satisfy the ‘exceptional’ test.

^[1] DVLA Freedom of Information Request by BBC, 21/02/2017