Crash, car taken without permission, no insurance/licence

[ArchEnemy]

nordboy said:

Sounds to me like he’s not very good at taking advice, he’ll probably try and defend himself. If he does, my advice is to plead guilty and then apologise to try and minimise his punishment. Mags can only give minimal sentences.
He’ll probably do the opposite (if he bothers turning up to court?) and play the victim card, which could just piss the magistrates off. They may then decide that he’s guilty, but send it to crown court for sentencing as they can’t impose enough of a sentence. (And i’ve seen this done on MORE than one occasion!).

OP, Would be interested to see how this plays out if you can keep us updated?

I will do, I have no idea how it's going to go for him, there's so much conflicting information.

I've watched enough of Road Wars etc to know that even some very serious traffic related crimes don't seem to get harsh punishments - it's often frustrating!

I would add that, and I am in no way defending anything - he's not some typical scrote that many will be picturing, it's really just a case of doing something sensationally stupid and committing multiple offences at once.

A shock to the system would certainly serve a purpose here.

[RipTrip1]

This sounds like a Jeremy Kyle episode

[Superleg48]

The mental health excuse will not be entertained unless there is a formal diagnosis in place by a suitable medical professional (psychologist or psychiatrist) and is recorded in his medical notes.

You can’t just rock up to court and play that card on a whim and hope to get away with it.

[martinbiz]

Mr Miata said:

Is she still with him?

If she is, she’s a fking idiot

Not really helpfull

[martinbiz]

Hugo Stiglitz said:

rlg43p said:

So you're saying that in addition to TWOC, crashing and injuring two passengers, driving without insurance he WAS ALSO "stratospherically over the limit"?

Surely he's looking at jail time?

I would say hopefully he would as he's put passengers and members of the public at risk amongst other things.


However agg TWOC is a summary offence and unless the car is over 5k in damages it will be dealt with at Mags.

Still he'll struggle to get a decent job in the future.

Even if he gets prosecuted for the other possible offences on the cards including dangerous driving they can all be dealt with by Magistrates, unless there is potential for a custodial sentence of more than 6 months which I would think is doubtful

[PorkInsider]

Hugo Stiglitz said:

Still he'll struggle to get a decent job in the future.

To be fair, on the evidence here it's unlikely he was going to be NASA's next recruit.

Things like having your job prospects affected are the incidental secondary punishments that only decent, hardworking people suffer.

[bmwmike]

Aretnap said:

Though as both offences were committed at the same time, he would normally only get one set of points, for the more serious offence.

Never understood that. Whatever happened to throwing the book at someone..

Also, only six points for no insurance seems massively lenient, I hadnt realised. Ive always had insurance, never had any points either, assumed it was a serious offence to drive without insurance but you get two goes at it!

[ArchEnemy]

Update!

So the details were:

4x over the drink drive limit ~
Provisional licence
No insurance
Vehicle taken without consent and crashed, 2 passengers with minor injuries

--

He entered a guilty plea.

8 week custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Total of a £200~ fine/costs.

3 year driving ban.

--

Make your own judgements, I think he was very fortunate.

[flying-banana]

I would've expected a heftier fine at least...

...and isn't there some irony in someone being caught driving with no license & no insurance ends up with a driving ban - like that would bother them, or stop them doing it again!?

[eldar]

ArchEnemy said:

Update!

So the details were:

4x over the drink drive limit ~
Provisional licence
No insurance
Vehicle taken without consent and crashed, 2 passengers with minor injuries

--

He entered a guilty plea.

8 week custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Total of a £200~ fine/costs.

3 year driving ban.

--

Make your own judgements, I think he was very fortunate.

Does seem fairly kind sentencing.

[ConnectionError]

I guess he also has a car that needs paying for,

Was it on finance?

[bmwmike]

ArchEnemy said:

Update!

So the details were:

4x over the drink drive limit ~
Provisional licence
No insurance
Vehicle taken without consent and crashed, 2 passengers with minor injuries

--

He entered a guilty plea.

8 week custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Total of a £200~ fine/costs.

3 year driving ban.

--

Make your own judgements, I think he was very fortunate.

Wow, so got off scott-free basically. Anyone else questioning their own law abiding ways and thinking of saving on the car insurance? I wont even drive without road fund tax but seriously, why bother.

fking scrotes get off too lightly.

[Alex Z]

flying-banana said:

I would've expected a heftier fine at least...

...and isn't there some irony in someone being caught driving with no license & no insurance ends up with a driving ban - like that would bother them, or stop them doing it again!?

A subsequent conviction would mean driving while disqualified which normally means a bigger fine and likelihood of jail.
But then so does all the stupid st that happened this time….

He was very lucky indeed. Is he now single?

[ArchEnemy]

ConnectionError said:

I guess he also has a car that needs paying for,

Was it on finance?

Wasn't his car, was low value. Partner has just replaced it with another cheap car.

Alex Z said:

A subsequent conviction would mean driving while disqualified which normally means a bigger fine and likelihood of jail.
But then so does all the stupid st that happened this time….

He was very lucky indeed. Is he now single?

Nope... don't ask!

[Aretnap]

ArchEnemy said:

8 week custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Total of a £200~ fine/costs.

3 year driving ban.

A suspended sentence nearly always comes with some form of community order - eg unpaid work, a curfew and an electronic tag, compulsory alcohol rehabilitation, or a combination thereof. Did you miss that part out, or was there some unusual reason why it wasn't imposed?

[Aretnap]

flying-banana said:

...and isn't there some irony in someone being caught driving with no license & no insurance ends up with a driving ban...

Not really. Having no licence is not the same as being banned for two reasons

(1) If you have no licence, you can get a licence (a provisional one, at any rate) any time you like by sending a form to the DVLA. If you're banned you can't - you have no way of driving legally until the ban expires.
(2) You can't go to prison for driving without a licence/insurance. You can for driving while banned.

A ban will always be in addition to some other punishment... so would you be happier if he were not banned?

[jdw100]

4x over the limit.

That’s what, 8 pints?

I guess he must have drunk more than the equivalent of 8 pints?

Not sure if I would have been able to turn the car on, let alone try to drive it.

[Sheepshanks]

jdw100 said:

4x over the limit.

That’s what, 8 pints?

I guess he must have drunk more than the equivalent of 8 pints?

Not sure if I would have been able to turn the car on, let alone try to drive it.

I recall a case where a senior police officer used the defence that he was so drunk he didn’t know what he was doing. He wasn’t successful.

As for the sentence, it seems light but anything custodial is a whole different level to a fine.

[martinbiz]

Alex Z said:

A subsequent conviction would mean driving while disqualified which normally means a bigger fine and likelihood of jail.
But then so does all the stupid st that happened this time….

He was very lucky indeed. Is he now single?

Added to the 8 week suspended sentence that would also kick in at that point

[Psycho Warren]

I presume the low fine is because he is an unemployed bum and a benefit drain on society........