Bulletin 3: surviving life with a driving disqualification
Here is the third dispatch on my disqualification from driving because of “speeding” offences – specifically the one I committed in January whose 3 penalty points took me up to the 12 in total which inevitably meant that a disqualification had to be considered by the presiding court.
Regular Rusters will recall that I had then more recently received communications from both the prosecutors and the court advising me that I had two choices – to contest the case for disqualification, in which case a court hearing date would be set, or not to contest it and instead plead guilty.
If I was to plead guilty, the issue of making a mitigation plea would arise.
Again, there were two options. I could decide to make one, which again would mean that a hearing date would be set because “disqualification mitigation pleas” are always made in person.
Or, alternatively, I could opt not to make a mitigation plea – if I did this the court would simply consider my case in my absence and, when they had, then announce what verdict they were going to dish out to me.
As I reported in my previous post, I had decided to plead guilty but not to make a mitigation plea because I had it on good authority that these are a complete waste of time.
I was told by a serving magistrate that all magistrates are issued with confidential written protocols which require that, whilst they must go through the ritual of listening to any “disqualification” mitigation pleas as a nod to the laws of England & Wales’s standards of “openness and fairness”, they must never pay any attention to them but instead automatically disqualify all drivers who have the misfortune to come before them with the dreaded 12 points on their scorecard.
Three days ago I received a letter from the court dealing with my case announcing that I have now been disqualified from driving for six months.
This may seem somewhat disingenuous, but – between you, me and the British Government only – this sentence felt to me no worse that being slapped in the face with a bit of pullover fluff.
In fact I’d go as far as to suggest that it was what I regarded a very welcome development in my life after two year’s worth of pretty consistent rotten luck during which I had lost my business, been divorced, got into a legal ruck with my brother, ruptured my Achilles tendon and failed to win a single Euromillions Prize Draw worth in excess of £75 million.
Don’t tell the magistrates, but a six months ban – after I had received similar eleven years ago when I previously got a driving disqualification for 12 points – practically ranks as a minor triumph warranting booking the lounge bar at my local public house and throwing a champagne party for thirty.
Six months? I had been expecting a minimum 12 months for being such an obvious recidivist offender.
I reckon my post last week suggesting that the nation would be far better served by insisting that I should be made to stay on the road (undisqualified) – and still going through ever speeding zone at my habitual 2 or 3 mph over the stated limit – thereby contributing substantial funds to the national road budget every year, must has struck a chord with whichever diligent Government public relations officer spotted my previous posts on his daily visit to the Rust’s website.
My good news aside, I have nevertheless been moved to write a letter to the court for clarification on two points.
Firstly, although I’ve been told that I’ve been disqualified from driving for six months, they haven’t told me the date on which the ban started (if this was in the past) or upon which it will start, if this is in the future. I have asked for confirmation which will be helpful because – by counting forward six months – I’ll be able to work out the date upon which I can drive again.
Secondly, I’ve just received a DVLA notice that I shall soon need to “apply for a renewal of my driving licence” because I shall pass my 70th birthday.
Leaving aside the issue of whether I can sue anyone for age discrimination because I’ve been asked to “renew” my licence because I shall reach 70 before the end of the year, what I don’t know at the moment is whether – because I’m disqualified for six months at the moment – I am therefore barred from applying for a renewal of my licence until my ban is over.
Late last Friday morning I set off by train in order to spend the weekend on the south coast.
That afternoon, upon arriving at my destination, I took part in a telephone conference call with a lawyer which – in my case – required afterwards that I return hotfoot to my “gaff” in order to be able to research a number of matters. I duly travelled back up to London last night and am to begin my “search mission” today.
The trips down from central London to the south coast and then back again within 24 hours by train – my only possible means of so travelling given my driving ban – were actually uneventful and quite enjoyment in a “once removed from life as I used to know it” sort of a way.
I love people-watching and there were plenty of opportunities for it on both excursions.
I wore a face mask all the way there and back – many didn’t – on both trips but generally I have to confess that I found it a refreshing (and admittedly on occasions a head-shakingly weird) experience to be exposed to the examples of “ordinary British folk” who were on the move with me on Friday and Saturday.
