New Driver escapes licence revocation after mobile telephone offence with a 21-day disqualification

Barrister, Millicent Dooher, represented this new driver before the Magistrates’ Court following a single mobile telephone offence. A mobile telephone offence attracts a mandatory minimum 6 penalty points to be endorsed on a driver’s licence.

The new driver provisions mean that where any driver is within 2 years of passing their driving test, if 6 or more penalty points are endorsed upon their licence, the licence is revoked, and the driver must re-sit both their theory and practical driving tests.

The only way to avoid this, is to look at a short disqualification period for the offence itself rather than penalty points: any endorsable offence can be dealt with by way of a disqualification.

In this case, Millicent convinced the Magistrates to deal with this mobile telephone offence by way of a 21-day disqualification. This meant that the driver did not have to retake his tests, any ultimately will be back to driving much quicker than had his licence been revoked.