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

Basically yes. They are both an embarrassment. Even more so for thinking they can use their unborn baby and disabled child as an excuse!

This is a case of playing shit games and winning shit prizes OP.

You're 7 months pregnant with a disabled child OP - these are not unusual circumstances and I'm sure that this wasn't the first time he's done this.

What gives him the right to drive around and put innocent lives at risk? If he was a competent driver he would've passed already.

This situation has been created by him and you if you were aware. I have zero sympathy and can't see how any magistrate would either.

He knowingly broke the law on several counts. He took a chance and he got caught. There are no valid mitigating circumstances that you are mentioning. He pleads guilty and faces the consequences. He must have known the risks but took the chance anyway. Surely you knew as well that he was using the car to commute to work? Be thankful he didn’t have an accident in the car uninsured, without a license and no MOT. The only reasonable excuse were if it were a life and death circumstance and he was rushing someone to the hospital.

Why should he be given any leniency? He did something reckless and illegal, and now he has to face the consequences of that.

A classic case of "fuck around and find out".

Op is trying to leverage her pregnancy and disabled child to get him off.

Theres not a chance she will tell them he took the car without consent.

As someone who has worked night shifts, pregnant, disabled and utilised public transport- with a disabled child, and a very young one at home because its felt like a safer option for everyone, I do find it quite disgusting that OP is trying to leverage her pregnancy and disabled child for leniency.

It's not always about the easiest option

He doesn’t deserve a lighter sentence. He isn’t helping you as you are pregnant . He chose to drive to and from work, with no licence, no insurance and no mot. He could have got a taxi, Public transport, walk anything but no he chose to break the law and they deserve to throw the book at him. It would be different if you had been in the car with him but you weren’t so he wasn’t helping you. I’m willing to bet this isn’t the first time he’s done it either,

Actually it would not.

You cannot drive in labor, you can not supervise a learner driver if you are in a non road legal state.

Its the same way a provisional driver cannot drive a drunk full license holder home, the supervisor needs to be sober and in control. Otherwise its exactly the same as driving alone.

It’s quite worrying that a few people here seem to be saying oh it’s ok etc. many years ago in my first job I knew someone who’d take other people’s driving tests for them, before the theory test came in. I was learning to drive at the time, mentioned it to my BSM tutor who said it was illegal and dangerous. When I saw the man next (it was through work) someone else brought this up as he was bragging about it in the pub and the money he was paid for it and this person said, “suppose the person you took the test for can’t drive well or kills someone after you take it for them, what do you say to that”. The man who took the tests held his hands up and said that wasn’t his issue and in some cases he didn’t even meet the men he was taking tests for and an intermediary handled the details/money.

I was learning to drive at the time, mentioned it to my BSM tutor who said it was illegal and dangerous.

Why did you need your driving instructor to tell you that? Isn’t it obvious?

I just mentioned it in passing to him. I knew it was obvious that it was illegal but I was a bit shocked that this was a thing people did and I suppose I wanted confirmation that it was wrong/illegal. I was a bit of a naive 17 year old though I admit that.

Don’t even know where to start with this one. Just shocked at the me, me, me of it all - really poor judgment, a cluster of avoidable driving offences that endanger other road users, and the assumption that the full force of the law shouldn’t be applied. Where’s the reality check?

@Kim066 I'm not ashamed of posting this because I never said it was okay. Only that there might be reasons why he took this risk, that are more than not giving a shit!

He wasn't racing round the Asda car park, pissed up with his mates. He was coming home from earning a living, to support his wife and kids, at a time of day when there isn't public transport for many.
^
I'm absolutely not saying it doesn't matter, but I also don't think it's right to give a pregnant and stressed woman a kicking.^

Him going to work to support his family does not make his actions any less dangerous to other road users . He is a driver who is likely not to have met the required driving standards hence he hasn’t sat/passed the test.

The train service in my area is horrendous . If I want to go into the office it’s double the time and extremely expensive on train. Sometimes I have anxiety about travelling due to various reasons , but really need to go places for work, to see family & friends etc. We all have legitimate reasons for not wanting to take public transport.

That does not take away from how incredibly selfish a couple must be to let one of them drive without a license. It’s irrelevant and even people with disabled children have posted to say how inappropriate it is to try and use this as any kind of excuse.

I don’t drink so I wouldn’t drink drive and I’m not into speeding so not a “boy racer”, but I am still not a competent enough driver since I’ve not sat and passed my test. Not drinking and not speeding doesn’t make it even remotely OK to do what OP has helped her partner to do. Sure, it makes him less worse than a speeding drunk driver with no licence but it’s still very thoughtless and reckless.

I expect the reason why people are being harsh is because she doesn’t seem to have shown any remorse at all for endangering the lives of others. Unless of course when she said she’s fuming she meant at herself and her partner. But that’s not how it comes across and she hasn’t been back to clarify.

Well that's a fucking big mess you've got yourselves into there.
You must have consented to him taking the car knowing full well he only had a provisional licence and therefore was not insured to drive it alone. It's your car and you knew its MOT was due but you let him drive it anyway.
How long had this been going on for before he got caught? I find it hard to believe he simply drove it to work once and had the misfortune to get caught that one and only time.
There are no mitigating circumstances whatsoever. A person with a provisional licence does not drive unaccompanied ever and there should be L plates on the car. If you'd actually gone into labour and he had to drive you and you were in the car and you were caught at that point then maybe, just maybe, you might be able to plead some mitigating circumstances but absolutely not in this case.

I think you need to get legal advice urgently because if he shows up at court pleading guilty and then trying to say it was to "help you" are you going to get into trouble for letting him use the car (which you shouldn't have done) or are you going to have to say that he took the car without permission which then makes it worse for him. Anything you say at this point could make it worse.
He should just plead guilty and that's it.
But if you're determined to try and wriggle out of the full consequences then you need to talk to a solicitor to find out what might be possible. It sounds like you haven't got a leg to stand on though.

And as for being pregnant and woe-is-me, it's ridiculous. Millions of women over the centuries have been pregnant and not needed their husband to drive illegally to work and back.

Thinking more about it, why did the police stop him . It won't have been for an mot check in the first instance.

Lots of random stops in the early hours this time of year.

DVLA has a national database of MOT's.

The police can scan registrations and it flashes up if a car is SORN or expired. Same with tax and insurance.

It could well have been if the police car had ANPR-it will flag up passing vehicles with no insurance and MOT

But they are more likely to have stopped him for erratic or dangerous driving or a dodgy brake light rather than day out mot itself.

He was coming home from earning a living, to support his wife and kids
It was two in the morning. You make it sound as though he'd foregone an evening at the pub to be around for his kids.

Ex regularly drove without license and over the limit/on drugs

It wasn’t lack of knowledge, or lack of money, or needing to be ‘help’ to family

It was because he was a selfish bastard who thought the law or indeed any rule or social convention just didn’t apply to him

All PPs have dealt with the driving stuff so I’m gonna add this:

Selfish bastards who think they are above the law, and who try to involve others in making excuses/covering up for their crimes are not likely to be loving caring and kind to anyone except themselves

OP you are pregnant, and that can be a point at which abuse starts or increases, ditto times when the potential abuser feels ‘caught out’ or ‘unfairly’ criticised

You are on here teaming yourself to him & his bad choices with ‘we’ and asking for help to solve the natural consequences of his bad choices

Maybe you are a bit dodgy yourself and fully support his bad choices 🤷🏻‍♀️

But on the chance that you disagree with what he has done and are at heart a decent person then I’m gonna urge you to have a chat with someone in rl who can support you

Because his level of entitlement wrt what he has done may well be indicative that he is selfish, entitled, blame-shifting & consequence-dodging arsehole within his personal relationships too

You will be cleaning up after an actual baby soon enough, don’t be fooled into cleaning up this man-baby’s shit into the bargain

This, plus even trying to blame the police ffs!!

No MOT is a major road offense... you absoloutly get pulled instantly for it.

Why do you think it isn't? An MOT is the certificate of road-worthiness, its on par with insurance and license for importance.

You are much less likely to get pulled for a dodgy brake light (something they have to actively notice) and even if you do they will just tell you to drive to the nearest place to get a bulb to fix it. Unless you have been pre-warned by them and not took action then you have a grace period as a bulb could go at any point.

Of course it is. But what I am suggesting is that something else in the way he was driving might have drawn attention first. ANPR cameras may flag insurance issues but MOT would usually be checked after stopping the driver, unless a defect were obvious.