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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Do you think driving whilst disqualified should be automatic prison sentence?

41 replies

themiceareout · 02/01/2022 18:14

Do you think driving whilst disqualified should be an automatic prison sentence, a friends niece got banned for getting 6 points in the first 2 years of passing her test and carried on driving anyway and got caught. I think she definitely needs community service as a punishment but do you think a custodial sentence needs to be imposed or does it depend on why the person was banned in the first place?

Obviously it's up to the courts to decide what they think is the appropriate action to take.

And no this not about my DD incase you ask.

OP posts:

purplecorkheart · 02/01/2022 18:16

Do you think that she will actually learn anything from Community Service or will she still carry on driving. Maybe prison will be the short sharp shock she needs. What was her logic about carrying on driving?

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 02/01/2022 18:17

No, not automatic. It’s important that judges have discretion. The move towards removing judges’ discretion by the legislature/ executive is not healthy for our democracy.

Guidelines are one thing, make sentencing automatic and you might as well have a robot in charge.

Lockheart · 02/01/2022 18:19

What are the circumstances? Out for a jolly is very different to driving an unwell person to hospital in an emergency. This is why judges have discretion and why blanket automatic sentences are unhelpful.

CorrBlimeyGG · 02/01/2022 18:22

The sentencing guidelines for this offence only point to a custodial sentences for the most serious offences. A community order is far more likely.

What good do you think sending her to prison will do?

sadpapercourtesan · 02/01/2022 18:25

No, but then I think prison as a punishment is massively misused in our current set-up. I would only use imprisonment to protect the public from violent/intractably deviant sexual offending, not as a punishment in itself. It doesn't work, it costs a fortune and we are running out of bin prison space to dump people who don't need to be there. It's one of the great scandals of our time ime.

KiloWhat · 02/01/2022 18:28

No. I think the judge should be able to use it as an option if circumstances are deemed to warrant it.
I also think it should lead to a 5 year ban on ever driving as standard and its up to the defendant to justify why they shouldn't be banned

BurscoughBooths · 02/01/2022 18:29

Was she banned or was her licence revoked for getting 6 points within 2 years of passing her test? If the latter, she has committed a lesser offence of driving other than in accordance with a driving licence.
If she was actually disqualified, a prison sentence would be rare for a first offence without significant aggravating features

TheCatterall · 02/01/2022 20:07

She’s banned from driving.
She knows she’s banned from driving.
So she knows this makes her insurance invalid.
So she knows it’s illegal to drive without insurance.
And she knows if she has an accident that’s her fault the other driver can’t claim on her insurance.

She’s an arsehole. Community service won’t do anything - even if she attended it. I think 30 days in prison for the first time you are caught + 2 year driving ban + retake your test.

DroopyClematis · 02/01/2022 20:09

Break the law
Pay the price

Riverlee · 02/01/2022 20:23

Katie Price didn’t as she’s going into rehab…

Was she driving her own car? That should be taken away.

If it’s a second offence, some action needs to be taken. Maybe an open prison?

Bagamoyo1 · 02/01/2022 20:26

@sadpapercourtesan

If a habitual burglar is in prison then at least for a few months he can’t steal from anyone.

Cryalot2 · 02/01/2022 20:34

I think it should. But my opinion doesn't count.
The priory and a sob story might work.

Alexandra2001 · 02/01/2022 20:37

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

No, not automatic. It’s important that judges have discretion. The move towards removing judges’ discretion by the legislature/ executive is not healthy for our democracy.

Guidelines are one thing, make sentencing automatic and you might as well have a robot in charge.

Disagree! The discretion should be in the length of the jail term, unfortunately, some discretion has had to go because judges have allowed personal bias to interfere with their sentencing.

People don't get a ban for doing a minor traffic offence.

Skeumorph · 02/01/2022 20:38

Massive fine would be better. I mean real, painful £25k, to be deducted from earnings like FOREVER.

AuntyMabelandPippin · 02/01/2022 20:40

The court should take the car away from them.

Alexandra2001 · 02/01/2022 20:40

What good do you think sending her to prison will do?

It says to other "drivers" in the same position that driving whilst banned will lead to a far worse punishment.

Do not underestimate the power a deterrent sentence has.

SuPerDoPer · 02/01/2022 20:41

Prisons are absolutely full. Most prisoners reoffend within a couple of years. It doesn't work as a deterrent. If you want people to change their behaviours then you need to educate them and help them make better choices. All prison does in cases like this is to remove the barriers to further offending - so this girl should lose her job, her home and her kids should go into care (if she has any) just so we can see justice being done? Ridiculous.

RoseRedRoseBlue · 02/01/2022 20:42

It should be Community Sentence first time, suspended sentence if it happens again and custody on the third time unless there are the most extenuating circs.

SuPerDoPer · 02/01/2022 20:44

@Alexandra2001

What good do you think sending her to prison will do?

It says to other "drivers" in the same position that driving whilst banned will lead to a far worse punishment.

Do not underestimate the power a deterrent sentence has.

If prison was a deterrent nobody would drink drive or use their phone behind the wheel. But people do because they assume they won't get caught.

BigYellowHat · 02/01/2022 20:45

I think so many people drive when banned. I’ll never forget when DS was about 4, the ex was banned for the second time. Anyway, I arrived at his about 10 mins early and he wasn’t there. A few minutes passed and I saw his car with him driving and his girlfriend in the passenger seat. Originally they were doing about 20MPH but then he sped up when he saw me, did a 180, zoomed off at twice the speed around the corner and they came back with her driving. I confronted him and he denied he was driving with her backing him up even though both my mum and I saw him. There was nothing I could do without photographic evidence so I had to leave it.

SuPerDoPer · 02/01/2022 20:46

I think the general public have no idea what prison is really like. People don't get rehabilitated and it mostly just sets their life chances way back so they take bigger risks to try and claw their way back up again.

DarkDarkNight · 02/01/2022 20:47

Not sure about automatic prison but definitely a large fine, community service and a much longer disqualification - long enough to affect someone’s lice and make them think twice - 3+ years. I see a lot of stories in local press where people are given more lenient sentences because they need their car for work, or will lose their job or have young children and it doesn’t hold much sway for me. People should think of that beforehand.

If they are caught driving while banned a second time it shows a total disregard for the law and should be an automatic prison sentence. I’m not sure what it would take to get through to someone like Katie Price who is a law unto herself.

sadpapercourtesan · 02/01/2022 20:49

@Bagamoyo1 and it's a shoddy, inadequate sticking-plaster solution that leads to nothing but more misery and recidivism.

A burglar will typically get the sort of shit-and-a-shave short sentence that comes with absolutely no attempt at rehabilitation, no support, no training, just bang-up and release. The burglar is now an ex-con with even less chance of gaining decent employment than he had before he went in. He's spent a few months bored out of his wits in the company of other criminals and been turfed back out onto the street - what do you think the outcome is likely to be?

We have to start thinking beyond banging people up for every offence. Prisons are only useful for housing those who cannot be around the general public.

NetballHoop · 02/01/2022 20:52

@Skeumorph

Massive fine would be better. I mean real, painful £25k, to be deducted from earnings like FOREVER.

The trouble with massive fines is that it makes the person more likely to re-offend in order to pay off the fine.

Hankunamatata · 02/01/2022 20:53

No. There are much better ways to handle it than a custodial sentence in an already broken and overcrowded prison system. The like of electronic tagging, behavioural management courses, community service etc

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