Government urged to end “human cost” of “dangerously lenient” driving bans for repeat offenders The failure of courts to take a motorist’s driving history into account when issuing bans has created “a loophole within a loophole”, says Cycling UK cycling
The government has been urged to close the legal loophole which allows repeat offenders to escape driving bans, after a report by the Sentencing Council found that some courts were failing to consider a motorist’s driving history when issuing “short, discretionary” disqualifications, even when the driver had received 12 or more penalty points.
The Sentencing Council says some magistrates have expressed “confusion” as to which points counted towards a totting up disqualification, creating what Cycling UK has branded a “loophole within a loophole”. While the Sentencing Council cannot enact legislative change and can only advise magistrates, Cycling UK has argued that – with evidence that the guidance appears to be failing – the government “must enact necessary legislation to keep all road users safe”.
Dollimore continued: “For the past eight years we have been promised by successive ministers a review of Road Traffic Offences and Sentencing. This review, if it ever begins, could put an end to the fatal flaws, like the exceptional hardship loophole, in our current road safety legislation.
The driver, who had other convictions for mobile phone use but had repeatedly been allowed to keep his licence,“Exceptional hardship is not losing the right to drive, exceptional hardship is what families such as Louis McGovern’s and Lee Martin’s have to face when their loved ones do not return home,” Dollimore said today.
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