The Crittenden Automotive Library

How Is This Possible?

How Is This Possible?

Geoff Maxted
DriveWrite
January 7, 2014

Driving badly or illegally will eventually catch up with the miscreants responsible. Most of us are slightly worried by the thought of picking up three penalty points and a fine for a bit of injudicious speeding; not so much for the punishment as the effect it could have on our insurance premiums. If they can, our insurers will hold it against us long after the points are expunged from our licences.

So it beggars belief that a man from Liverpool accumulated 45 licence penalty points in November, according to figures released by the DVLA following an freedom of information request. The points were all for failing to disclose the identity of the driver or exceeding statutory speed limit on a public road, between 1st October 2012 and 20th June 2013. This beats the previous record of 42 points.

Failing to give the identity of the owner, speeding, and driving uninsured are the most common reasons for points. The second-highest points total, 36, went to a man from Warrington in Cheshire, who was caught driving without insurance six times in less than two weeks, between 20 February and 2 March 2012. How is this possible that the authorities are so powerless to deal robustly with this flagrant disregard for the law? What excuses could these ne’er-do-wells (or their briefs) possibly come up with?

Other notable offenders include a woman from Lincoln with 34 points, who was caught speeding three times and failed to give information to identify the driver four times between 15th January 2012 and 26th September 2012. Then there’s the female from Hull with 31 points, who was caught speeding eight times in two months, between 29th September 2011 and 29th November 2011. Running her close is a bloke from Westcliff-on-Sea, with 30 points who was caught speeding six times in just two weeks (!), between 30th September and 13th October 2012. What must their insurance premiums be like? That’s assuming of course that they’ve declared the penalties or that they have, indeed, bothered to get any insurance at all.

The apparent fact that some drivers may be able to speed or otherwise offend with impunity and then talk themselves out of a ban puts our whole approach to enforcement into question. The motoring public need to have confidence that those caught speeding or breaking other motoring laws will be dealt with equally. Something is radically wrong here because the offenders clearly could not give a hoot. People who thumb their noses at society and rack up massive points totals ought perhaps to try a little vacation in one of Her Majesty’s institutions.