Plea for legislation to remove ‘fatal flaw’ in the road justice system

Cycling UK has renewed its call on the Government to close the legal loophole which allows repeat offenders to escape driving bans, labelling it a system “which leaves dangerous drivers free to kill innocent road users”.

Under current law, drivers who accumulate 12 or more points within a three-year period face a minimum six month driving ban. 

However, courts can allow drivers to retain their entitlement to drive where it is considered that disqualification would cause exceptional hardship.

Cycling UK has calculated more than 83,000 drivers with 12 points or more have escaped disqualification in the past 10 years.

In October 2020, the Sentencing Council issued guidance for magistrates, designed to reduce this number.

However, as reported by the Sunday Times, the Sentencing Council says those changes have led to courts instead imposing short discretionary disqualifications (of less than 56 days) where people have received 12 or more points.

Cycling UK says that with evidence the guidance is failing, the Government must enact necessary legislation to keep all road users safe.

Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns, said: “We now have a loophole within a loophole. 

“The result is people who should be facing six month or longer driving bans are continuing to pose a risk on our roads, often with fatal results.

“The law, as it is, does not deliver justice and fails to reduce danger on our roads. For more than eight years the Government has recognised that our road traffic laws are failing – it’s about time they brought in their much needed change.”

Last year Cycling UK published a report which highlighted two individuals whose penalty points from driving offences would normally have resulted in a totting-up ban, but who were allowed to keep their licences after pleading ‘exceptional hardship’.

In each case, they were later imprisoned for causing death by dangerous driving.

Christopher Gard accumulated eight convictions for using a mobile phone while driving but escaped a ban in June 2015 by arguing that it would cause him to lose his job.

Six weeks later, while texting behind the wheel, he crashed into the back of cyclist Lee Martin, killing him. Gard tried to cover up his actions by deleting his texts. He was later jailed for nine years for causing death by dangerous driving.

In 2004, Kurt Sammon ran over 13-year-old Michael Weaver, who died from serious injuries including a severed spinal cord. Sammon, who had taken methadone, failed to stop and abandoned his car two miles away. 

According to Cycling UK, he was reported to have served just three months in prison after admitting failing to stop and report an accident, and having no insurance or MOT. 

In October 2018, following mobile phone offences, Sammon escaped a ban by pleading exceptional hardship, saying it would affect his job and his ability to care for his mother. 

Three months later, Sammon was fielding a call on his hands-free mobile when he jumped a red light in his van and hit 30-year-old motorcyclist Louis McGovern, who died from his injuries the following day. 

Sammon was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving and jailed for seven years.

Duncan Dollimore added: “Exceptional hardship is not losing the right to drive, exceptional hardship is what families such as Louis McGovern’s and Lee Martin’s have to face when their loved ones do not return home. 

“Exceptional hardship is when the courts put the retention of someone’s licence to drive above the safety of other road users. Exceptional hardship is when the courts allow irresponsible people to carry on driving until they cause further harm or death on the roads.”

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