Successful Appeal to the Crown Court for Totter

This driver, represented by Millicent Dooher, had received a totting disqualification of 6 months having received more than 12 penalty points on his licence following a number of speeding offences. A suspension of the disqualification was obtained by Millicent in the first instance, so the client could continue to drive until the appeal hearing.

At the appeal hearing, the Judge accepted that the driver would be caused exceptional hardship if a 6-month disqualification was imposed. The Judge imposed a 7-day disqualification. At the end of the 7-day disqualification, the driver’s licence was wiped clean of the existing penalty points.

If a Court does find exceptional hardship, they have two choices: impose no period of disqualification, or impose a reduced period of disqualification. If no period of disqualification is imposed, the penalty points stay on a licence until they naturally expire. If a reduced period is imposed, at the end of that period, a driver gets a clean licence. For this driver, as he had 18 penalty points, 7 further days of disqualification meant that he had 0 penalty points endorsed on his licence.