Points ???

[GMan 2112]

I was stopped by the local Traffic Police yesterday for doing 45 in a 30. They checked my license against DVLA records and said I currently have 3 points. Looking at the paper copy of my license it says I have 8! The oldest of these is 5 points for an offence (CD10) committed Oct 2001 and convicted May 21st 2002. I thought the points would be valid for 3 years from the date of conviction. But from what the officer said it appears its 3 years from the date of the offence (he didn't know). Looking at the DVLA website (last line of section 1) www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/endorsem.htm It appears I do still have 8 points on my license! So who is right? (excluding the 3 I just picked up) A) Police DVLA check (3points) B) Me (8 points till May 21st) C) DVLA website (8 points till Oct 05)

[deva link]

GMan 2112 said:

I was stopped by the local Traffic Police yesterday for doing 45 in a 30. They checked my license against DVLA records and said I currently have 3 points. Looking at the paper copy of my license it says I have 8! The oldest of these is 5 points for an offence (CD10) committed Oct 2001 and convicted May 21st 2002. I thought the points would be valid for 3 years from the date of conviction. But from what the officer said it appears its 3 years from the date of the offence (he didn't know). Looking at the DVLA website (last line of section 1) www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/endorsem.htm It appears I do still have 8 points on my license! So who is right? (excluding the 3 I just picked up) A) Police DVLA check (3points) B) Me (8 points till May 21st) C) DVLA website (8 points till Oct 05)

Well it isn't C). The points do stay on your licence for 4 yrs, but they only count for 3 yrs.

My understanding is that fixed penalty's are from date of offence and court convictions are from date of conviction, so B is correct. Of course that means they're about to expire anyway but (assuming your latest transgression gets you a 3 point fixed penalty) you'll have 11 points until then - perhaps better to avoid driving until 22nd May!

[Dwight VanDriver]

Date of offence is taken into account for purposes of totting.

If it was date of conviction then a person on 9 points and court hovering could arrange adjournments so that he could drop some points before appearing. Not allowed.

Date of conviction is taken into account on the 4 year rule on removal of points.

DVD

[deva link]

OK, so that means A) is correct.

Although that means if you had a pending court appearance, you could drag it for a while and by the time of conviction and getting some points, it could be 12 mths since offence, so the points would only count against you for 2 yrs.