Motoring Offence Information
General Practice Solicitors who deal with all areas of criminal law won’t always know the perfect legal arguments that can be used successfully to protect your licence if you have been accused of any of the driving offences below;
Fail To Nominate Driver
If your vehicle is caught breaking a driving law, you will have to complete an s.172 information request.
The penalty for not providing the information is six penalty points.
The statutory defences in the Road Traffic Act are S172(4) and Section172(7)(b) RTA 1988.
Either, prove you used reasonable diligence to discover the drivers identity, or you didn’t receive the request to do so.
Valid Car Insurance Motoring Offences
Your excuses for driving without valid car insurance are not taken into account when you are stopped. If you don’t have valid insurance cover, you are deemed to be at fault and as such as considered guilty of the offence.
You will receive 6 – 8 penalty points on your driving licence if convicted or if you plead guilty to the offence.
Frequently, the insurance broker will have cancelled a motoring insurance policy without the driver being notified.
The Special Reasons Argument can be used if you are capable of demonstrating to the court that you genuinely and honestly believe that you had motor insurance in place.
Driving Speeding Offences
You will receive three to six penalty points on your licence for speeding, plus a possible discretionary driving ban, costs for your case and a fine.
To back up your defence you will require professional evidence in order to to defend your successfully defend your allegations.
Drink Drive Road Traffic Offences
The limit in the UK for drinking and driving is 35mg in breath. A twelve month disqualification is the minimum penalty for drink drive offences.
If you are going to defend a drink driving allegation, you have three options to do so, you can prove that you were not the driver, you can demonstrate that you were not in a public place, or you can prove that you had the alcohol once you had driven, not before.
If you took alcohol without knowing then you may also have a valid defence, or if you only drove a very short distance, or it was an emergency.You can also avoid a drinking and driving disqualification if you are able to show that you swallowed alcohol unknowingly, were involved in an emergency situation or drove only for a very short distance, although these are notoriously difficult defences to succeed with in many instances.
Ask national motoring law specialists Patterson Law about your drinking and driving offence if they are applicable to your circumstances?
Drunk in Charge Road Traffic Offences
The prosecution must prove to the court you were over the legal drink drive limit and in charge of the vehicle.
A defence for drunk in charge is to convince the court that you didn’t
plan to drive until you were under the drink drive limit.
If found guilty of drunk in charge of a vehicle then you will receive either ten penalty points on your licence and a possible discretionary driving licence ban.
Mobile Phone Motoring Offences
The mobile phone need to be held while being used in order for an offence to be committed.
Because use of a mobile can be a grey area, many Magistrates Courts often have differing views.
You are still driving even when stationary at road works or in a temporary hold up.
Driving Without Due Care and Attention
To be convicted of driving without due care and attention, it is necessary for the prosecution to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the quality of your driving was not that of a careful & competent driver.
It covers many motoring offences from knocks in car parks to undertaking on a motorway.
At the discretion of the police you can be offered a Driving Improvement Course instead of attending Court.
Failing to Report Offences
Any driver involved in an accident has a duty to stop and provide your details in accordance with Section 170 of the RTA 1988 if either; a vehicle, person or property was damaged or injured.
In circumstances where you weren’t able to exchange details at the time, you are required to report the accident to the police as soon as is practicable and at most within twenty four hours.
This offence carries 5 – 10 points on your driving licence or a discretionary driving ban.
To defend this successfully, you need to show that it would be reasonable for you not to know that you had caused damage and been party to an accident.
Failing to stop and failing to report are very serious offences. At worst you can receive a community service or even a custodial sentence.
Dangerous Driving Motoring Offences
It is up to the prosecution to show in court that at the time of the offence, the quality of your driving fell far below the acceptable standard required. In addition, they need to show that it should be clearly obvious to a competent driver that your driving was deemed dangerous.
The courts take dangerous driving seriously, meaning that it carries a minimum one year licence disqualification, which includes an extended re-test in order to regain your licence, as well as a potential custodial sentence for more serious cases.
No Licence Offences
This offence causes confusion.
Driving not in accordance with the limitations of your current driving licence is the biggest cause of this offence, for example, not having L plates if you are a learner and have yet to pass a driving test. This would be an endorseable offence.
If you have failed to return your current driving licence to the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency when requested and they suspend your driving entitlement, it is non-endorseable.
No licence offences are often linked to having no insurance offences, where it is often suggested that having no licence means that your insurance is invalid. This is wrong.
No licence motoring offence can be confusing, for all parties, in addition, many Courts are not clear if this driving offence carries points or not. Be certain to get the best possible result for your Court case with specialist advice from a dedicated motoring law solicitor.