Driving Whilst Disqualified – How Proposed Changes Of Magistrates' Court Guidelines Could Effect You

A 12 week consultation period has now opened for changes to court sentencing guidelines within the Magistrates' Court. The changes may have an impact on sentencing in the Crown Court as well for a breach of community order. The proposals are for minor changes relating to the offences of driving whilst disqualified, breach of community order and totality.

Driving whilst disqualified

This relates to drivers who have been convicted of driving while disqualified and are liable to be further disqualified for the new offence. Driving disqualifications start on the day they are imposed - a new disqualification cannot be set to start on the date that an existing one expires. The current sentencing guidelines state that a disqualification imposed for this offence should be for a period "beyond the expiry of the current ban". Sentencers' do not always notice this and it is felt a clear statement would be helpful to avoid them falling into error.

Sentencing Category

Once the court have determined the range of category which the offence falls within (category 1 - 3) 1 being the highest with penalties ranging between high level community order through to 26 weeks custody through to a category 3 having a range of penalties from a Band C fine through to a medium level community order.

Disqualification/Penalty Point Position

The disqualification/penalty point position from a category 1 level can mean a disqualification period of 12 - 18 months beyond expiry of the current ban (extend if imposing immediate custody) through to a category 3 level whereby a disqualification can be from 3 - 6 months beyond expiry of a current ban or 6 points.

What effect do the changes have?

The proposed changes are in order to make the position entirely clear to sentencers and other guideline users, including offenders, the Council propose to add the following text to the sentencing table:

"Check the period which remains on the existing disqualification, and the expiry date. This information is necessary as all disqualification periods must begin on the day of sentence - there is no provision for consecutive disqualifications. For example, if 4 months is remaining on the current disqualification, and the court is imposing a further 12 months disqualification for this offence, it will be necessary to disqualify for 4 months + 12 months = 16 months from the day of sentence."

This proposed change will allow for sentencing to be conducted in the correct way and therefore will not...