Drink Driving, Licence Disqualification and Habitual Driver Declarations

Going to court because you have been charged with a drink driving offence, or any other traffic offences, means that you can be penalised in a wide variety of ways. You can be punished with a fine or a term of imprisonment, or both. But, unlike other non-traffic related offences, the Court can also disqualify you from driving. And, it’s important to remember, you can be sentenced to prison for traffic offences.

The only way to avoid all of these is to avoid recording a conviction under Section 10 of the Crimes (sentencing procedure) Act. You may also be convicted under Section 10A of the Crimes (sentencing procedure) Act where you will not receive a fine or be sent to gaol, but your licence will be disqualified for a period of time.

When the court makes a decision about how you will be punished it looks at a number of important factors, most importantly, whether, or not, you have committed a major traffic offence in the past five years. If you have, the court has the power to disqualify you from holding a drivers licence for a longer period of time.

The range of licence disqualification can be seen in the table below. If you have committed three major traffic offences in the past five years, the Roads and Maritime Service, independent from the court, may declare you a habitual offender.

This means that, an additional five year licence disqualification will be added on top of any orders the court makes, though the court may quash this declaration at any time it sees fit, though this only has an immediate effect and is not back dated.

If you find yourself in a situation where you have been charged by the police for a drink driving offence, you should look to find experienced legal advice as quickly as possible.