A Swindon motorist has not been banned even after having 39 penalty points on his or her licence – the most in Great Britain. 638 drivers in Bristol, Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset and Gloucestershire have 12 or more points, a Freedom of Information request to the DVLA showed.
Unless they can prove it would cause exceptional hardship, twelve points usually means a temporary ban for a driver. A court decides if a driver is banned and the Magistrates' Association agreed the Swindon case needs investigating.
The DVLA's response to the Freedom of Information (FOI), from BBC West, did not say which offences the penalty points related to and gave no further information about the driver from Swindon. It explained that although it compiles the figures on court cases involving driving offences it has no influence on verdicts.
“I accept that something appears to be wrong with [the figures in the Swindon case] and they need to be looked at. I can't even conceive how somebody can have 20, 30, 40 points and not be disqualified. I can't work it out. I'd be very interested to see how it happened,” said Elliot Griffiths, from the Magistrates' Association.
The DVLA added courts can not disqualify the driver in a “small percentage of cases where the driver has accumulated 12 or more penalty points and can exercise discretion only.”
A driver with 12 points can argue disqualification would cause exceptional hardship – either financial or personal. The same exceptional circumstances cannot be cited again if the court finds the hardship argument applies, but the driver then accrues further penalty points within three years,.
As of 24 March 2011, the DVLA said the figures were current.