Banned motorists 'ignoring' the law
Written By Faye Sunderland Published On: Feb 06 2009 Motorists who have been banned from driving up to 50 times are still getting behind the wheel, The Telegraph reports.The news come as magistrates call for call for tougher sentencing powers to deal with such cases. The Magistrates’ Association is urging Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, to tackle the problem, saying existing laws are too weak for the worst offenders.Around 75,000 motorists are driving despite being banned, the AA estimate. Government figures, covering 2006, showed that 192,000 drivers were disqualified.Chris Hunt Cooke, chairman of the Association’s road traffic committee, told the newspaper, magistrates could jail drivers who flouted the ban for a maximum of six months.But because of the early release schemes and reduced sentences offered for a guilty plea, such drivers normally only served around six weeks.A spokesman for the AA said: “The reoffending rate for disqualified drivers is 50 per cent. They are just ignoring driving bans. We have to get tougher with the hard core of offenders.”
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