General Practice Solicitors who deal with multiple areas of criminal law often aren’t fully familiar with the intricate legal arguments that can be used to defend your case if you have been accused of any of the motoring offences below;
Failing to provide driver information
Section 172 information requests are sent to drivers following a motoring offence.
Failure to provide the required information will get you 6 penalty points on your driving licence. The two possible options for your defence are S172(4) and Section172(7)(b) RTA 1988.
Either, prove you used reasonable diligence to identify the driver, or you didn’t receive the request to do so.
No insurance
If you are stopped by the police driving without motor insurance, you are considered to be at fault and therefore guilty, regardless of your reason or circumstances.
If you plead guilty or are convicted, your licence will be endorsed with 6 – 8 points.
It is quite common for an insurance policy to be cancelled due to a missing payment, and for the driver to be unaware that they are not legally covered.
A special reasons argument can be used if you can show the court that you genuinely and honestly believed that you had motor insurance in place.
Speed Related Motoring Offences
If convicted of a speed related motoring offence you will receive 3 – 6 penalty points, a possible discretionary ban depending on the severity of your offence, as well as costs and a fine.
Expert testimony is mandatory following recent UK motoring case law if you want to be able to defend your speeding allegations.
Drink Drive Road Traffic Offences
The drink drive limit in the UK is 35mg in breath. A 12 month driving ban is the minimum licence disqualification if convicted of drink driving.
If you can prove that you were not the driver of the car, or that you were not in a public place, or that you consumed the alcohol after driving then you have a valid defence for your drink driving allegation.
The 3 other possible drinking and driving defences are that you only drove a limited distance, that it was a genuine emergency or that you were unaware that you had had alcohol before driving.
Drunk in Charge Related Offences
The prosecution must demonstrate you were over the legal drink drive limit and in charge of the car.
You have a possible defence if you can prove to the court you were not intending to drive until you were under the drink drive limit.
The Court will impose either ten points or a driving ban.
Mobile Phone Offences
To be guilty of using a mobile phone while driving, you must be holding and using the phone.
The opinion of many Magistrates varies widely for this offence.
A stop at traffic signals or a traffic jam is still considered by the Court to be driving. If you have been accused of using a mobile phone while driving and would like free, impartial advice about how best to proceed, talk to Patterson Law today and find out what your options are.
Without Due Care Road Traffic Offences
In order to convict you, the prosecution are required to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the level of your driving was below that expected of a careful & competent driver.
Low speed car park bumps and dings as well as undertaking offences are good examples of driving offences covered by driving without due care and attention.
Instead of prosecution, and depending on your circumstances, the police may well offer you a Driver Improvement Course.
Failure to Stop Motoring Offences
In accordance with S170 RTA 1988, you are required to stop and offer your details after an accident if a person, another vehicle or propertywas damaged.
Where it’s not possible to exchange details at the time, you must report the matter to the police as soon as you are reasonably able to do so and within 24 hours.
This offence carries five to ten driving licence penalty points or a discretionary driving licence ban. You can defend this allegation if you can show that it would not be unreasonable for you not to be aware that you had had an accident and caused damage.
Fail to report and fail to stop offences carry a potential of community service or even a custodial term if your case warrants it.
Dangerous Driving Motoring Offences
To gain a conviction against you, the prosecution needs to establish that at the time of the offence, your driving standard fell beneath that required, and in addition that it was plain to any competent driver that at the time, your driving was dangerous.
Magistrates Courts take dangerous driving offences very seriously, and as such, the penalties are commensurate with their views. As such, if convicted you face a minimum one year ban, which automatically includes a full re-test before you are allowed back on the road, as well as a potential prison term if your case is deemed to deserve it.
No Licence Offences
There is often confusion surrounding this offence. An endorsable offence would be driving without displaying L plates, or not having passed a driving test prior to driving.
Should you fail to return your driving licence to the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency when asked, and they then suspend your driving entitlement, the offence is non-endorsable.
‘No licence’ is widely assumed to mean that your insurance is also invalid, but this is wrong.
This ‘no licence’ motoring offence is often not properly understood by both the police and Magistrates as to whether ‘no licence’ carries driving licence penalty points or not. Make sure you get the best result you can for your case by getting professional motoring solicitors to guide you.