Driver with 229 points still holds valid licence

A man still holds a valid driving licence despite having 229 penalty points, figures show.

The 26-year-old from Flintshire in north Wales is among more than 50 drivers in Britain who can legally drive with at least 30 penalty points.

The "shocking" statistics have sparked calls for repeat offenders to undertake mandatory retraining.

Motoring industry experts have raised concerns that, without transparency around the reasons for ban exceptions, safety and trust in the system could be compromised.

Points are issued for road offences, such as driving without due care and attention, drink-driving and speeding.

Drivers are usually banned for six months if they receive 12 or more points within a three-year period.

They can stay on licences for up to 11 years after an offence, meaning some people with multiple convictions are legally allowed behind the wheel because they have served their disqualification.

People can also try to convince a court a ban would result in exceptional hardship.

Alison Ashworth, a senior solicitor advocate in motoring law, explained the number of penalty points were "not necessarily a pertinent consideration" when it comes to these arguments.

This is because it "rests solely on the consequences of the disqualification on that individual and those around them [and] the offence itself is not really a relevant consideration".

Hardship circumstances include having family members who are dependent on your ability to drive.

“The court wants to punish the offender, but they don’t want to punish innocent third parties that haven’t done anything wrong," she said.

“Ultimately, it is a discretionary remedy, so you may well get a very sympathetic bench of magistrates on one particular occasion, and they may allow somebody to continue driving with more points than otherwise you would expect."

Ms Ashworth added "common sense would suggest" people would learn from accruing points on their licence and adjust their behaviour, but added other factors could lead to high numbers of points where courts "look favourably" on the driver.

For example, people can forget to update their address and the number of points can rise as the case escalates, she said.

She said multiple offences could be committed by triggering several cameras in one area or on one day without realising the error, adding the introduction of 20mph zones in Wales was a good example of this.

"They could have driven through the same place every day for, realistically, up to 14 days before they have to receive a notification from police that they’ve committed an offence, and by this time they’ve committed all these offences without having the opportunity to adjust their manner of driving."

Nicholas Lyes, director of policy and standards at road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, said the "shocking statistics" called into question the definition of exceptional hardship.

"At the very least, those that accrue 12 or more points on their licence should be required to take an additional training course, even if they are allowed to keep their licence," he said.

Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, added "more transparency" was needed for "collective safety" and "public confidence".

"It would be reassuring to know that someone in authority was monitoring both the absolute number of licence holders swerving a ban and the reasons why they've been granted leave to keep driving," he said.

"Exceptional hardship needs to be truly exceptional."

Ms Ashworth said having hundreds of points was "very much the exception".

"I’ve seen many people try their luck… and the courts are quite rigorous in the way they assess these arguments," she said.

She added people who already have points, or who had escaped a ban based on exceptional hardship, which they cannot apply for on the same grounds more than once in a three-year period, were often "a lot more careful than anybody else on the road".

Additional reporting by Alex Bish