I have had my licence for less than 2 years and have been charged with no insurance, what can I do to avoid having my licence revoked?

This is one of the most common questions I get asked as a Motoring Solicitor – how can I avoid points on my licence if I am guilty?

Driving without insurance carries a minimum of 6 points so a new driver with less than 2 years experience will have their licence revoked if convicted.

There are no real defences to driving without insurance, unless you are driving your employers vehicle. Generally if you have no insurance you are guilty. The fact that you thought you had insurance is not a defence.

So how do we get around this? Whilst it’s true you will almost certainly have to plead guilty there is a way to avoid penalty points. It doesn’t apply in all situations but if it does it can make a huge difference to someones situation.
Even though you have pleaded guilty you can argue that there are special reasons not to impose penalty points.

Special reasons are not easy to win but with careful preparation they can avoid points on your licence. Special reasons have to relate to the offence, not the person. So the fact that you only drove a short distance may be a special reason, the fact that you will lose your job will never be special reasons. What might amount to special reasons? The list is never closed and can apply to any offence where penalty points or a disqualification are obligatory. I recently successfully argued that a client should not have points on her licence because although she did not have any insurance she had been misled into thinking she did have insurance. The court accepted this because she had been misled, if she had merely made an oversight and thought she had insurance that would not have been enough.

Other special reasons might be that you had driven a very short distance, that you drove because of an emergency or that your drinks had been spiked.

If you are successful in arguing that there are special reasons not to put penalty points on your licence then the court will simply mark your case as guilty but no points and normally impose no fine and no costs.

The list is never closed so if you think you may have a good reason to avoid penalty points on your licence contact a specialist motoring solicitor.