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

[themiceareout]

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.

A repeat disqual driver should go to custody.

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

She wasn’t disqualified or banned, getting 6 points in your first two years just bumps you down to a provisional. You can book and retake your test as soon as you like. She would’ve been driving unaccompanied on a provisional which I’m guessing would be “otherwise in accordance” and probably got her disqualified.

We often hear about prisons being overcrowded as it is. If she had been caught drink driving then maybe but not for any reason at all
I would rather prison was kept for serial offenders and those guilty of serious crime.

I spend more than half of my working week in the mags courts. There are about 20 DQ drivers convicted every day in the court in which I work.

There are simply nowhere near enough prison spaces for all those people to be given custodial sentences. I see people convicted of death by careless driving walk free. There aren’t even enough prison spaces for those who kill people behind the wheel.

There are many, many serious offenders who burgle houses, seriously assault people and commit major fraud who never go to jail. I’d start with them tbh.

Wouldn’t a better solution be to crush the car, even if it is notionally someone else’s?

Real world consequences, and would make family far less likely to turn a blind eye.

@BigYellowHat unless your DS was in the car at the time with your ex I don’t understand why that would have been any of your business?

@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.

The trouble with judges having discretion is they tend to use it to protect naice, white people from well off backgrounds whilst the full force of the law falls on people from ethnic minorities and the less well off. Perhaps sentencing does have to be more rigid to be fairer?

Depending on the circumstances of the driver there are more appropriate measures that can be used -

Confiscate car regardless of who owns it unless reported stolen
Dont allow them to register a new car in their name for x years
Significant community service
Fines
Curfew/tagging
Extended driving retest/education
Longer bans
Points on licence for longer

@SuPerDoPer

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.

...so the alternative is she does a CS, keeps her licence and next time kills a child.

the DD 12m ban certainly does work but cuts in traffic/community policing means the chances of being caught are minimal, so people take risks.

We are too soft/perverse, we send people to jail for failing pay a fine but glass someone in a pub and its "he was an abused child, show mercy!" and they get a suspended sentence.

@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.

Total rubbish. If prison sentences acted as a deterrent our prisons would be nearly empty instead of overflowing

@user1471505494 Nope our jails are full of people doing ridiculously short sentences & locked up for stupidly long hours, achieves nothing.

We do not do anything like enough rehab, education and parole is a joke.

Plus we have such low numbers of Police, the chances of being caught are tiny, so of course jail is no deterrent, no one gets caught.

Look at rape stats for a snapshot at all that is so wrong with our justice system

Suspended sentence for first offence then after that jail

No, it shouldn’t be automatic. It should be up to the Judge, taking into account all the circumstances.

Prison isn’t a deterrent because no-one ever thinks they’ll get caught. That’s why they do it. I’m also unclear what the point of prison in this case would be.

some discretion has had to go because judges have allowed personal bias to interfere with their sentencing.

Judges are incredibly undervalued and underestimated. They aren’t worried about vote winning or party politics and so don’t have to make populist or popular decisions. They are the most independent arm of government.

No, I think prison should be reserved for violent crimes.prison is very rarely rehabilitative.

No - but mainly as I'd prefer prison spaces be reserved for violent and sexual offenders and king pin level drug dealers - and I'd have them in for life! Actual life not a long sentence

A massive fine AND community service AND permanent driving ban (driving is a privilege not a right) is what I would like there to be and if the car is hers seize it and sell it and give the money to victims of such drivers and their families or charities that support them

I've also said before on here it should become an offence to make a vehicle available to a banned/disqualified driver.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing given the WOEFUL sentencing given by judges to certain types of violent offenders I think mandatory sentencing for certain crimes at this point IS needed! Are you a judge/related to one?

I'm sick of seeing rapists, paedos and wife batterers set free or given pathetically minimal sentences for their crimes - but that's really a while other thread

It's one of the great scandals of our time

Totally agree

The trouble with judges having discretion is they tend to use it to protect naice, white people from well off backgrounds whilst the full force of the law falls on people from ethnic minorities and the less well off.

Also true