Gardner Leader

How important is your Driving Licence to your employment?

In these times of credit crunch and boom or bust, to keep your job is an obvious priority. However, apart from the financial crisis and threats of redundancy, motoring offences resulting in the loss of your driving licence could lead to the loss of your employment.  John Jackson, Litigation Partner at Gardner Leader LLP takes a close look at the types of motoring offences that can result in the loss of a driving licence and the impact on certain areas of employment.

.

If you are a sales person or courier, then the retention of your driving licence is vital.  There may also be a condition of employment that the employee must possess a driving licence and that disqualification or a certain number of penalty points may result in dismissal.  Also, if you are a “work getter” then loss of your driving licence could be disastrous for a company.

A broad range of offences carry the penalty of imposition of penalty points and even disqualification from driving.  Penalty points can be imposed for offences concerning the driver (for example, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence), offences concerning the vehicle (eg. defective brakes), offences concerning the use of a vehicle (eg. number of passengers or the way carried involving danger of injury), motoring offences (eg. driving in reverse or the wrong way on a slip road) and offences relating to buses and goods vehicles. Not forgetting the commonplace offences of speeding and driving without due care and attention. Penalties for offences concerning the vehicle, the use of the vehicle and buses/goods vehicles differentiate between three types of offender; driver, owner-driver and owner-company.

Some frequently asked questions are:

§                     What different types of disqualification are there?

Disqualification can result in Court under any of five provisions:

a)                     Obligatory disqualification

b)                     Discretionary disqualification

            c)                     Penalty points or totting disqualification

d)                     Disqualification until a test of competence is passed,

e)                     Disqualification where driving is involved in a serious crime.

§                     How might a new driver end up being disqualified?

Under the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995, a scheme was introduced for re-testing drivers who obtain six or more penalty points within  two years of passing their driving test (the probationary period).  In this situation, the DVLA will automatically revoke a new driver’s driving licence when it is sent to them or they are notified by the Court.  The new driver will only be entitled to hold a provisional licence until he/she passes a re-test, which will then restore his previous entitlements.

§                     I have nine penalty points on my driving licence and have just received a summons for speeding.  Can I avoid a disqualification?

Depending on the speed recorded, the Court might decide to disqualify for the offence itself. However, if it imposed penalty points in the range of three to six then you would become what is commonly known as a “totter” having accumulated twelve or more penalty points over a three year period in which circumstances you must generally be disqualified for a minimum period of six months.  It may, however, be possible to argue “exceptional hardship” before the Court to ask it to exercise its discretion not to disqualify or to disqualify for a period less than six months.

It is therefore important to seek legal advice early as soon as you are aware of the likelihood of a prosecution, for example, on receipt of a Notice of Intended Prosecution and particularly if a summons drops through the letterbox.

For more information, please contact Gardner Leader LLP on 01635-508080 or visitwww.gardner-leader.co.uk.

[Back]