It was a Christmas present that the 23-year-old driver in Stoke On Trent probably didn’t want. He was stopped on Boxing Day by the police as his Vauxhall Astra was uninsured.

The police subsequently discovered the lad had a whopping 96 points on his licence and was already disqualified from driving. The authorities promptly seized his car and the lad’s driving ban was increased until 2027.

Prison time?

Incredibly, despite having such a huge number of points, the driver has managed to avoid prison.

However, this could change as the police stated on X that, “we will be asking the Crown Prosecution Service to make representations for a custodial sentence due to the clear lack of care for the law.”

Users on the social media platform were shocked that someone could even be allowed accrue so many points. The police were quick to point that the driver could ‘achieve’ this by “just ignoring any punishment and continuing to drive, gets caught and keeps getting more and more points.”

Remember, it only takes 12 points accrued within three years to get a six-month ban in the first place – and if you’re a new driver, you only need to get six points before your driving licence is revoked and are required to take your driving test again.

Record breaker

Sadly, the Astra driver is not a one-off. Research shows that there are many drivers on our roads who have managed to clock up multiple points. This includes the 48-year-old man with 66 points as well as 27-year-old Ashley Peart who was caught breaking the speed limit 24 times. This led to him being ‘awarded’ 144 points in court.

Perhaps more incredibly, there are thousands of motorists who are still driving legally even though they have 12 or more points, including a driver with 68 points.

How? If you can convince the court that losing your licence for any length of time could cause ‘exceptional hardship’ – such as losing your job – you may be shown leniency.

Perhaps such a lenient approach needs to be reconsidered.

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Image by Robert Fotograf from Pixabay.