Partner caught driving on provisional licence, no mot

[Eveh13]

I am currently lost and fuming at this situation. I apologise for the long post.. I am currently 7 months pregnant and my partner was caught driving alone on a provisional and without MOT (the appointment was on a same day but daytime, and he was caught at 2 a.m.). He has 3 charges against him and obviously needed to be removed from the policy. We want to plead guilty without attending a court but we Don't know how to explain himself, to try and lower a sentence. He was caught coming back from work at around 2 am but the officers did not include this in the report (to where he was going). He said to the officers that he needed the car to get into work. The police officer on the report quoted, ""I cautioned the driver who made no reply to caution". What does this actually means? I'm so confused. 🤔 He had shown the police officer his provisional licence and on the report says, quote "the vehicle was not displaying any L plates and the driver was unsupervised. The driver identified himself and the police checked it and he was free to leave walking. (Car was seized and under my name, I have full licence).
The thing is, how do we plead guilty and so can he explain himself? He wants to tell the court that he took the car to "help" me because I'm 7 months pregnant and we have a disabled child at home. We just don't know how to write it officially. I will be giving birth soon and I am dreaded and exhausted from pregnancy and this situation. Thank you

The fact your are pregnant is not relevant.

He is an idiot.

He could have killed someone.

He won't have insurance and if he had killed someone or injured them, he'd have been in potential debt for life if he was sued for injury.

He deserves all he gets.

You sound as irresponsible to condone his behaviour.

You've had excellent advice upthread @Eveh13 , so I hope you take it all on board, especially the bit about booking the MOT asap. No-one can drive it legally until that's done (well, apart from taking it for the MOT, obvs).

All I can add is buy him a bicycle for Christmas, so he can get to work without breaking the law.

As others have indicated on here, best to apologise, and he will need to make alternative arrangements to get to work. If you apologize sincerely, this may work in your favour, and you may get off more lightly than you otherwise would have done.

I doubt it and you also said the law can't be switched off and on depending on personal circs.

The one thing you don't say @Eveh13 is why he was pulled over at 2am.

Driving erratically?
Possibly appearing drunk?

Not following the Highway Code?

Police need a reason to stop a car.

Sorry, but there are absolutely no excuses here, and trying to justify his reckless actions will make him look like a premium wally.
You must have known that he was using your car? Did you give him permission, OP? Or did you not notice that your car was missing for the entirely of his shift?
It’s inevitable that he’ll face a serious fine and points, and when he does pass his test, he’s in for a nasty shock when he shops around for car insurance.
Extra stupidity points for trying to get away with it while your car’s MOT had expired. He was begging to be stopped.

He is looking at points close to a ban.

Depending how far the police want to go, the OP might be looking at various permitting offences.

Police traffic cars are fitted with registration readers that alert for non MOT or non insured cars.

He will have likely been pulled because the database showed no MOT.

@Eveh13

Don't listen to people on here...

You don't need legal advice. Just go to court, plead NOT guilty to all of the charges on the grounds that it was late at night so there was minimal other traffic/people around, and that you only did it Monday - Friday and not at weekends.

You didn't have a full license, BUT you were working towards getting one at some point in the future (possibly)!

The MOT was out of date, yes, but not by much so that should work in your favour, right?

"I didn't put the L plates on 'cos that would have meant I needed a qualified driver with me, and then I might have got tugged by the Old Bill. Oh shit, I have been..."

Please do come back and let us know how it went...

What if he gets an electric bike? He is basically an unqualified driver, unsupervised driving without an MOT. I know a few District Judges and they won’t have sympathy on this one!

Your partner is a grade A wally. By driving without a licence, without insurance, and in a car that was potentially unroadworthy (not MOT) he was putting himself in danger and every other road user too... And all while his partner is expecting his baby. Great guy.
Frankly, the MOT offence is the least of his worries and I'd hazard that the police wouldn't have been especially bothered about that if all his other things were in order and he could show the test was booked for later that day.
While this doesn't constitute legal advice, he'd be best to plead guilty and apologise his arse off. The magistrate looking at the form (assuming this is being dealt with remotely and not in person in a court) won't take kindly to someone saying "Yes, I'm guilty... BUT...".
If you want proper legal advice, hire a solicitor.
However, your partner remains an absolute idiot and if this is what he (and you) think constitutes "helping" you when you're heavily pregnant then you've both got some long hard thinking to do.

The thing is, how do we plead guilty and so can he explain himself? He wants to tell the court that he took the car to "help" me because I'm 7 months

How was he helping you by breaking the law?

It comes over as if this is his normal way of getting to work.

It's not like a one-off driving you to the doctors in a complete emergency or something.

And as the owner of the car you are the one who should book the MOT and drive it there. So you allowed an uninsured, learner driver to drive you car with no MOT.

He was doing this a lot I imagine.
And now he's been caught.

It will just make it worse really, because that means he is admitting to doing it knowingly and over more than one occasion rather than a one off lapse in judgement. Total apology and contrition is the best approach I would think. But definitely get proper legal advice.

Question - how were you planning to be transported to hospital when you go into labour? By your dangerous driving, unqualified partner?

This (and multiple other posts like it) are inaccurate.

Previous posters have conflated

Special reasons - circumstances where although there is no statutory defence, nevertheless the court can choose to impose no (or fewer) points, such as a spiked drink for drink driving or a true emergency for no insurance.

Exceptional hardship - where you should be banned but doing so would cause exceptional hardship to a third party, going beyond mere inconvenience.

Mitigation - where you say hands up, I committed the offence, but there are some mitigating factors which should reduce the penalty slightly.

There are mitigating factors available for no insurance in the sentencing guidelines, and they include remorse and previous good character, so please ignore the multiple armchair experts telling you mitigation is unavailable.

I'm sorry to shout but so many posters have said he should say "nothing" or would "make it worse" if he did, or that it "won't help" to provide any mitigation, often because they've confused it with special reasons, or just because they think he deserves a harsher penalty.

The sentencing guidelines provide the following aggravating factors: previous relevant convictions, offence committed on bail, failure to comply with current court orders or offence committed on licence. Mitigating factors include no relevant or recent convictions, remorse, good character and / or exemplary conduct, responsibility for insurance rests on another, genuine misunderstanding, recent failure to renew or vehicle not being driven.

OP's DH seems to fall into two of those mitigating categories (no previous convictions and remorse). It would be really daft not to raise them.

Ha ha you had me going for a second there! Nice touch with the misspelling of “licence” too 😀.

The vehicle was not MOT'd therefore the insurance is invalid. If the Op knew he was using the non-MOT'd car and that he didn't have a full licence, (which I assume she does as they are on the way to having 2 kids), then she is guilty of "Causing or permitting" an uninsured and unlicensed driver to drive her car (2 offences).

She will likely get 3 points for each offence plus a fine.

The partner will likely be fined and banned from driving, including taking a test for at least 12 months.

Oh and subsequent insurance will go through the roof.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52

An offence is committed if a person causes or permits another to use a motor vehicle on a road without a valid insurance policy covering that use ( S143 (b) Road Traffic Act 1988). This offence carries the same penalty as using the vehicle.

Mitigating factors include no relevant or recent convictions, remorse, good character and / or exemplary conduct, responsibility for insurance rests on another, genuine misunderstanding, recent failure to renew or vehicle not being driven.

We don't know about previous convictions or his conduct.

Driving is not the same as other illegal acts. It's very very clear.

Another twat who thinks he doesnt need to bother with anything really. I have just paid the car insurance which has gone up by 30%! When I called firstly they said COL etc and then said I suspect it was because of the all the uninsured drivers he said 'no comment'!

There are no mitigating circumstances, it was a planned journey. Presumably to have the car with him at work, he knew in advance that he would be driving it home.
he needs to just accept it and take the punishment as he doesn’t deserve anything less. Any hardship caused as a result is his entirely his fault and he needs to accept that. Yeah it’s going to be very frustrating for the two of you but what he did was very danger and illegal for a reason.

I’m a magistrate who regularly hears and sentences cases like this.

Nothing you’ve said would make me mitigate his sentence, and in fact you’re tacitly telling the court that he also illegal drove TO work which isn’t going to garner sympathy.

If there’s an option to plead guilty and not go to court (I don’t get involved in anything before it gets to court so not overly familiar with that process) then I would do
that as you might find you avoid higher court costs even if you mitigate the fine (which is unlikely).

But if you want proper advice on what to do for the best, speak to a solicitor.

If he was caught coming back from work then you must know he went to work unsupervised, with an expired MOT.

Have you usually been driving/supervising him to and from work and so he was driving on his own to help you?

He is guilty of the charges. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He was not helping you, he was helping himself and making his life easier.
Why was there no MOT and why has he not taken his driving test?

I am afraid he needs to plead guilty, take what the court hands down, and ensure he takes his driving test. I find his excuses pathetic.

This learner driver in 2016 caused the deaths of these two women.
https://www.thejournal.ie/cork-clancy-crash-3094729-Nov2016/

Lots of good comments, but also a number of inaccuracies...

• Having no MOT does not invalidate your insurance.
• Having no MOT does not mean that you can't drive on the road - you can, but only under specific circumstances which come down to MOT test booked and driving to the test centre - the test centre can be anywhere in the country and you can stop on the way as long as you are en route and directly so.

However:

• driving on your own with a provisional licence will have no mitigating circumstances.
• 2am from work to home is not a direct drive to an MOT centre, so the lack of MOT will count.

Driving not in accordance with your licence may or may not invalidate insurance - but it is not automatic, will depend on the wording of the policy.

No info about exemplary conduct I agree but the OP doesn't say he has previous. I suspect she (and he) would be less stressed about it if they were frequent flyers at the magistrates court. Hence saying "he seems to have" those available rather than "he definitely" has those available.

If he has those two mitigating factors available to him then he should use them.

If he hasn't he can't.

Mitigating factors are STILL not the same as special reasons.

What on earth do you mean "driving is not the same as other illegal acts, it's very very clear"?