Offence: Speeding / Totting up penalty points

Defence: Exceptional Hardship

Carl Millar represented Mr W before Wrexham Magistrates Court.

4 penalty points were imposed for the offence of speeding, which meant that Mr W now had 13 penalty points on his driving licence. Exceptional hardship was advanced and was found due to Mr W’s personal circumstances.

Mr W is a service manager who travels to 46 buildings throughout the Lancashire area. As part of his role he is required to travel around each site and undertake spot checks. His contract of employment would have been terminated by his employer if he were disqualified for the minimum period of six months. It was accepted that a driving licence is crucial for his job role. Furthermore, the Court accepted that he would struggle to pay his mortgage as his wife only worked part-time and therefore exceptional hardship was found for himself and his wife. Obviously, Mr W was delighted with the outcome as he was not disqualified from driving.

Place: Nottingham Magistrates Court

Offence: Speeding / Totting up 12 penalty points or more

Defence: Exceptional Hardship

Mr K received 4 penalty points for the offence of speeding. At the time of the offence he had 9 penalty points on his driving licence and therefore he faced a minimum period of disqualification of six months under the totting up provisions.

We advanced exceptional hardship and we are pleased to confirm that exceptional hardship was found in the circumstances.
The impact of a driving disqualification would mean that Mr K would have lost his job and therefore would not be in a position to maintain his mortgage payments. This would have had a negative impact upon his family whereby his daughter would have needed to have been taken out of private school.

In the circumstances, Mr K was delighted with the outcome.

Offence: Speeding / Totting up 12 penalty points or more

Defence: Exceptional Hardship

Miss A appeared before Reading Magistrates Court on the 18th May 2019. She had committed a further offence of speeding when she already had 9 points endorsed on her driving licence in the previous 3 years. With exceptional hardship, the Court look at the first offence date until the offence date within a 3 year period.

Miss A did not have a powerful argument for an exceptional hardship hearing. In the circumstances we tried to persuade the Court to disqualify her outright for the offence alone. Fortunately, the Court were persuaded by this argument and disqualified Miss A for a period of 28 days.

Although Miss A was disqualified from driving, she was relieved that this was only for a period of 28 days rather than six months under the totting up provisions.

Offence: Speeding / Totting up penalty points

Defence: Exceptional Hardship

Carl Millar represented Mr S before Northallerton Magistrates Court in respect of totting up 12 penalty points or more, whereby Mr S faced a minimum period of disqualification of 6 months under the totting up provisions. At the time of this further offence Mr S already had 10 penalty points on his driving licence. The Court imposed a further 3 points and therefore he now had 13 points on his driving licence.

Carl advanced exceptional hardship explaining the consequences of disqualification would mean that his position of employment would become untenable. The collateral damage following on from this would be that there potentially could be a loss of jobs to other employees in his place of work due to the nature of his job. Mr S worked as a contracts manager for a shop fitting company in various locations up and down the country.

Mr S’s house was subject to a mortgage and he had three children. His partner did not work and his family relied solely on his income. The impact of a disqualification and subsequent loss of job would mean that his partner and children could potentially be made homeless if his house were to be repossessed. Thankfully, exceptional hardship was found in the circumstances.

Offence: Totting up / Exceptional Hardship

Defence: Exceptional Hardship argument

Millars Solicitors recently represented Mr H who faced disqualification for a minimum period of six months under the totting up provisions

Mr H already had 9 points on his driving licence when the matter went before the Court. He was travelling at a very high speed that could have resulted in a disqualification of 56 days for the offence alone, of travelling at 110mph in a 70mph speed restriction area.

Millars Solicitors persuaded the Court to disqualify Mr H for the offence alone of speeding whereupon he received a 25 day period of disqualification. Mr H was concerned that the Court may not find exceptional hardship in his circumstances and this was a preferred option. Naturally, Mr H was delighted with the outcome as he avoided the minimum period of disqualification under the totting up provisions of 6 months.

Offence: Speeding and / or Totting up 12 penalty points on driving licence for second time within a 3 year period

Defence: Mitigation and Exceptional Hardship

Millar’s Solicitors were instructed by Mr H who faced disqualification for a minimum period of 12 months under the totting up provisions.

Mr H was travelling at 110mph in a 70mph speed restriction area. In accordance with the Magistrates Court Sentencing Guidelines, he would face a disqualification of up to 56 days for the offence alone. Unfortunately, Mr H had been disqualified 2 years previously for 56 days. The result of this was that he faced a minimum period of disqualification of 12 months under the totting up provisions due to having the previous disqualification for 56 days within the previous 3 years.

Clearly, Mr H’s preference was a short term ban for the offence alone, rather than trying to advance exceptional hardship and running the risk of losing and then facing the disqualification period of 12 months.

Mitigation was advanced and the Court accepted the argument to impose a short term disqualification of 15 days. Obviously, Mr H was delighted with the outcome, as he could have been disqualified for a period of 12 months.

Offence: Totting up 12 penalty points on driving licence

Defence: Exceptional Hardship

Carl Millar from Keep My Driving Licence part of Millar’s Solicitors was instructed by Mr W who faced disqualification for a minimum period of six months under the totting up provisions.

Mr W pleaded guilty to using a handheld mobile telephone. At the time of the incident, he had 6 penalty points on his driving licence. The Court gave him a further 6 penalty points for the offence of using a handheld mobile telephone, and he was now therefore a “totter”.

Powerful mitigation was advanced on behalf of Mr W. In short, a period of disqualification for six months would have meant that his position of employment would be untenable. This would have a significant impact upon his wife and children who were dependant on his income in order to put a roof over their heads. There were real concerns for Mr W that his house may be repossessed.

Another argument undertaken was that Mr W was an electrician working for the local authority in his area. We advanced exceptional hardship to the general public at large.

We relied upon the case of Cornwall v Coke. In that case, the defendant’s appeal was allowed and Judge Lee stated that hardship to the public is a mitigating circumstance, and indeed is a rather stronger mitigation than hardship to the offender, and that therefore the Magistrates did have a discretion to not disqualify in the circumstances.

Mr W was not disqualified and was naturally delighted.

Offence: Speeding

Defence: Exceptional Hardship

Carl Millar from Keep My Driving Licence, part of Millars Solicitors represented Mr M before Lincoln Magistrates Court on 21st January 2019. Mr M was speeding whereby he was travelling at 92mph in a 60mph speed restriction area. In the circumstances Mr M faced a disqualification of up to 56 days. Millars Solicitors successfully persuaded the Court to impose 6 penalty points instead of a driving disqualification. Any period of disqualification would have caused Mr M exceptional hardship. The magistrates before Lincoln Magistrates Court accepted the argument put forward by Millars Solicitors.

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Place:  Wirral Magistrates Court CH41,

Offence: Totting Up

Defence: Exceptional Hardship

Millars Solicitors represented Mr P before Wirral Magistrates Court.

Mr P had accumulated 12 penalty points and therefore faced disqualification for the minimum period of six months under the totting up provisions.  Exceptional hardship was advanced whereby we managed to persuade the Court that Mr P’s company could face potential liquidation and this could have resulted in redundancies for his staff.  The Court were persuaded that any disqualification would cause Mr P and his employees exceptional hardship and he was therefore not disqualified from driving at all.

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