driving while disqualified

[ongand]

Hello, my mum let me use her car to get to gatwick and back, so i found a person with driving licence and insurnace on blabla to give me a lift in my mums car On the way back, there was a person going back to bath and i think he was going to use a bus or a train and i asked him if he can drive me in my my mums car, then once we were getting close back to my city the tyre poped we spun and then driver run away, 4 men in a van stopped and asked if i need help i said no i was ok its just my steerring wheel thats playing up and ill get back (i was tired and didnt feel like tell them the whole story) then they said you can drive like that took a picture of my car and called the police who came (whilst i was changing the tyre) and arrested me for driving while disqualified. They released me on bail pendng further enqueiries, my question is, if those 3-4 people say that i was driving, even though they didnt see it will the court take their word for it and convict me for driving while disqualified or does the police need other proof? my disqualification ends on the 25th of this month by the way!!

 

[ongand]

would any one be able to help me with thi please?

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

Yes, the court can find you guilty of driving whilst disqualified based on the evidence of eye witnesses. It depends on whether or not they are believed over you and whether the court are satisfied behind reasonable doubt. The evidence of only one eye witness can be enough if that witness is believed.

 

[ongand]

Yes, the court can find you guilty of driving whilst disqualified based on the evidence of eye witnesses. It depends on whether or not they are believed over you and whether the court are satisfied behind reasonable doubt. The evidence of only one eye witness can be enough if that witness is believed.

even though i did not drive, would it be better to say i did because if 4 witnesses say i did, even though they wouldnt have seen it as it was the motorway and a van was driven, they only saw that it was me in the car after the other person fled and as the car spun they were already on the other side of me so couldnt have seen any one gettting out, then they started getting agressive and i got scared so i turned the car the other way round and drove a little bit further until they drove away, stopped on the hard sholder with my hazards and then police arrived. Only how can i prove all of this when it was just me in the car and 3-4 of them

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

If you drove the car, even only for a short distance, then you are guilty of the offence. Although shortness of distance driven and/or emergencies are potential special reasons for not being disqualified. Only duress is capable of being a complete defence but the bar is set very high for this. You would have to show that you had a good reason for believing you were under threat of very serious harm or death. In practice this is difficult to prove.