Failure to renew licence following drink driving disqalification 11 years ago

[victoriamelody]

Bit of an odd one that im hoping someone may be able to shed some light on! in 2006 i was convicted of drink driving and given a 12 month ban and a fine. In october 2007 when my ban ended I remember sending my renewal form back a couple of months before my ban ended. at the end of my disqualification period I began driving again - and have happily been doing so for 11 years. After a routine stop last week it transpires my licence remains 'insubstantiate' which effectky means it was never re-issued following my disqualification. I cant recall ever being sent a new licence and over the years have never had reason to present one, i.e no motoring offences etc.
At the time of stopping me the officer then impounded my vehicle, despite the fact my husband was on the scene prior to them taking the vehicle, my husband is a named driver on the insurance policy and had a full valid uk licence on his persons - they allowed him to drive the vehicle away from the pound 6 hours later after paying a £150 release fee. Since this I have now had a Fixed Penalty Notice through the post from the Metropolitan Police with a £100 fine and 3 penalty points for 'Driving not in accordance with a licence'. After extensive research it appears that my offence of not renewing the licence is not endorseable (i.e no points) and should be fine only. The point being that had the DVLA received my renewal form there is no reason why my licence would not have been issued back to me 11 years ago, it was not subject to a medical or course etc. in fact a week after the incident I immediately applied for the licence back which has now been issued by the DVLA with no issue.

I am wondering if anyone knows where I stand with this for certain as my only way of appealing this is in court, I cannot afford legal representation and I am not 100% sure of the laws surrounding this, it appears a very grey area. Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act does state that as my ban was prior to 1 June 2013 I did not need to wait for the issue of a licence to drive again if it had been applied for.

Any comments or similar situations are welcome, thank you

 

[Forum Moderator]

Bit of an odd one that im hoping someone may be able to shed some light on! in 2006 i was convicted of drink driving and given a 12 month ban and a fine. In october 2007 when my ban ended I remember sending my renewal form back a couple of months before my ban ended. at the end of my disqualification period I began driving again - and have happily been doing so for 11 years. After a routine stop last week it transpires my licence remains 'insubstantiate' which effectky means it was never re-issued following my disqualification. I cant recall ever being sent a new licence and over the years have never had reason to present one, i.e no motoring offences etc.
At the time of stopping me the officer then impounded my vehicle, despite the fact my husband was on the scene prior to them taking the vehicle, my husband is a named driver on the insurance policy and had a full valid uk licence on his persons - they allowed him to drive the vehicle away from the pound 6 hours later after paying a £150 release fee. Since this I have now had a Fixed Penalty Notice through the post from the Metropolitan Police with a £100 fine and 3 penalty points for 'Driving not in accordance with a licence'. After extensive research it appears that my offence of not renewing the licence is not endorseable (i.e no points) and should be fine only. The point being that had the DVLA received my renewal form there is no reason why my licence would not have been issued back to me 11 years ago, it was not subject to a medical or course etc. in fact a week after the incident I immediately applied for the licence back which has now been issued by the DVLA with no issue.

I am wondering if anyone knows where I stand with this for certain as my only way of appealing this is in court, I cannot afford legal representation and I am not 100% sure of the laws surrounding this, it appears a very grey area. Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act does state that as my ban was prior to 1 June 2013 I did not need to wait for the issue of a licence to drive again if it had been applied for.

Any comments or similar situations are welcome, thank you

Driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence is actually an endorsable offence which can attract 3-6 penalty points and a level 3 fine of up to £1000.

Take a look at the magistrates sentencing guidelines and information on endorsement codes and penalty points (Endorsement code: LC20).

Driving under section 88 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 only applies if certain criteria are met. One of these criteria is that the DVLA must have received your complete and correct application within the last 12 months.

You can read more about section 88 here.

It may be that your original application got lost in the post somehow and the DVLA never received it.

Did it never occur to you to look into why you never received your driving licence and perhaps contact the DVLA?

 

[price1367]

As above, and I would add that even if you had got your licence back in 2007 it would have expired by now as you have to renew the photo every 10 years so you really should have been aware that there was an issue with your licence. If it had been under 10 years, and you had proof of posting then you could have argued that it was reasonable to believe that your application had been delivered. (But as he Moderator pointed out, the application should have been in the past 12 months) Because it is over 10 years even that tenuous claim fails.
Pay up!

 

[victoriamelody]

As above, and I would add that even if you had got your licence back in 2007 it would have expired by now as you have to renew the photo every 10 years so you really should have been aware that there was an issue with your licence. If it had been under 10 years, and you had proof of posting then you could have argued that it was reasonable to believe that your application had been delivered. (But as he Moderator pointed out, the application should have been in the past 12 months) Because it is over 10 years even that tenuous claim fails.
Pay up!

Thank you for your kinds words

I have since had written 'No further action' from the police and the Penalty Notice has been withdrawn. As I thought, 'substantiate driving licence' is not an endorsable offence and the wrong offence code of 'driving not in accordance with a licence' was issued in error. The pound fees are being refunded. Sorry to disappoint!!

 

[price1367]

You have had a lucky escape! The police don’t usually get these things wrong, and even if they do, they can amend the charge at any stage. I guess that they took the pragmatic view that you were entitled to a licence, but just procedure wasn’t followed to apply and decided to discontinue rather than amend.

 

[Mother]

Do you have any FREE legal service's in your area, if you do I would go and get advice, as you need a licence to get car insurance, and the insurance companies do check that you have licence well mine did.