Totting

[Paul22118]

Has anyone had experience of getting disqualified from driving by virtue of totting. My next door neighbour has just got to 13 and wants to know whether he has to go to court or do they just tell you that you're off the road for x number of months. Ethel are you there dear?

[oldhamfan]

How did he get to 13? Has he got 10 and just received a Notice of Intended Prosecution?

As I understand it, a fixed penalty cannot be accepted if it will result in the driver accumulating 12 or more points, and a court appearance is the alternative.

It is at this hearing that the driver would be informed that (s)he was banned (as happens in most cases, unless there is exceptional hardship) and how long this ban is for.

[Paul22118]

Odd circumstances I suppose. Whilst his licence was away getting 3 points on it for a minor speeding fixed penalty ticket, he got caught for drunk driving. That went to court and has been completed but they gave him 10 points and a fine. Now of course he knows a ban is approaching but doesn't know how this takes place. Dear sir you are banned for a year or get your ar$e down here for a face to face ban.

[ChuckFickens]

More to the point how did he get caught drink driving, go to court and only get 10points and a fine?

drink driving is an automatic ban and there is no way to get it reduced to just points and a fine.

[oldhamfan]

He hasn't been done for drink driving then.. he would have been banned. Did he refuse to provide a specimen?

[R1Geezer]

The interesting thing is that any points accumulated for an offence that also incurs a ban does not actually acrue the comensurate points. So for drink driving he will get a ban, the offence carries 10 points but unless a ban is escaped by some unusual mitigtion, the 10 points would be nominal so when he gets his licence back he'll have 3 points.

This happenned to me, my licence had 3 points, I got a 6 pointer for speeding + 56days ban and when I got my licence back I still had three points. The offence was there but in the points column it had 00.

[oldmaggie]

10 points are put on licence for being in charge whilst over the limit. New sentencing guidelines

[New Judge]

Thanks, oldmaggie, I was just starting my answer when yours appeared. Driving with excess alcohol carries a mandatory minimum twelve month disqualification. The only exception is if �Special Reasons� not to disqualify are found. This is extremely rare and if such reasons are found then neither points nor a ban is awarded. Being �in charge� carries no such mandatory ban and it must have been this with which your neighbour was convicted and ten points would be appropriate.

What now happens is that the DVLA will, when informed of the ten points, ask the court whether a �totting� ban was imposed as it should have been. If the court says it was not because they were unaware of the three points that were pending, your neighbour should be recalled to court to go through the totting ban process. The DVLA cannot award a ban, only a court can. Your neighbour will be given the opportunity to say whether �exceptional hardship� will ensue if a ban is imposed.

What Geezer says about points and/or a ban is not quite correct. Offences which carry a mandatory ban (such as driving with excess alcohol) have no �points� alternative. Those which carry a discretionary ban (and that is all other offences which carry an endorsement) can either be dealt with by way of points or a ban, not both. The effect is the same as Geezer says in his personal example (i.e. he got a ban and no points) but a driver is not actually awarded any points for an offence for which he is disqualified.

[R1Geezer]

Fair enough, judge, but when the beak said his bit he said that he'd awarded a "nominal" 6 points, I didn't at the time realise what he meant but effectively he's saying it's a 6 pointer but your banned anyway sunshine! At the time I would have prefferred to have the ban rather than have a total of 9 points so I wasn't too bothered.