Fatality cases – what happens if I am unlicensed, uninsured or disqualified?

The most commonly known fatality offence would be that of causing death by dangerous driving. However, the law had to recognise culpability in cases whereby people may be culpable for causing death by driving in circumstances when they had no legal basis to be driving.

The offence falls within section 3ZB of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

The offence is triable either way, meaning it may be dealt with by the Magistrates’ Court or the Crown Court.

The maximum penalty in cases sent to the Crown Court is 2 years imprisonment, with a mandatory disqualification period of 12 months.

The prosecution must prove the following for this offence to be made out:

1. Death was caused by another person driving a motor vehicle;
2. On a road;
3. And at the time of driving, the person was either using a vehicle without valid third party insurance or, they drove otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

Driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence includes driving on a provisional without a supervisor/displaying L plates.

The prosecution do not have to prove there was an issue with the offender’s standard of driving (compared to death by careless/dangerous driving cases), culpability simply arises from an offender driving a vehicle when by law, they were not allowed to do so.

The offence falls within section 3ZC of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

New separate guidelines are currently under consultation for this offence to differentiate it from the above offence however, for disqualified drivers, the offence can only be dealt with at the Crown Court.

The maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment, and carries a minimum 2 year period of disqualification. A compulsory extended driving test will also be ordered for completion before you are able to drive again on a full licence.

The prosecution must prove:

1. Death was caused by another person driving a motor vehicle;
2. On a road;
3. And at the time of driving, the driver was disqualified.

As above, there is no requirement to show a poor standard of driving in the circumstances.

This offence is known as a “specified offence” meaning that you can be classed as a ‘dangerous offender’. The main impact of this, is that if you are considered dangerous and the court views a custodial sentence of more than 4 years is appropriate, you will receive an extended determinate sentence. For example, the court could impose an extended determinate sentence of 9 years made up of 6 years in prison and 3 years on an extended licence. You would serve two thirds of this time in prison (4 years), and then serve 5 years on licence (to factor in the early release, plus the 3 years already specified as being on licence).

In contrast, a determinate sentence means that you would only serve half a custodial term in prison, and serve only the remainder of that time on licence.

Fatality cases are extremely complex and require careful work at the outset. As the prosecution need not prove that any standard of driving was careless or dangerous, it would become simply a question of whether your driving is the cause of death in the circumstances.

In some cases, the extreme circumstances that led an offender to drive whilst unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured may result in a successful defence of ‘duress of circumstances’.

If you can demonstrate that you were insured, not disqualified and driving on a correct licence, the Crown may have to consider whether any alternative charge can be brought as an alternative. It is very difficult otherwise to defend offences when it is alleged that you were uninsured or driving without a licence. The reason for this is that these offences are considered “strict liability” offences in that there is no room for interpretation or opinion on the subject. You either had a valid licence or you didn’t have one.  There are no technical defences that can be advanced in relation to this element of the offence. The only factual defence that you could advance would be if you did in fact have a valid licence etc and you were charged incorrectly.

As these offences carry a significant risk of prison, it is important to have strong mitigation advanced at court. There are several other factors that will be considered by the court that may increase the seriousness, namely;

1. Previous convictions for motoring offences;
2. The number of fatalities caused;
3. Irresponsible behaviour such as falsely claiming someone else was driving.

Key mitigation that can be considered, beyond personal factors include:

1. Driving as a result of a genuine emergency which falls short of a defence;
2. The victim is a close friend or relative;
3. You genuinely believed you were licensed or insured to drive;
4. Remorse;
5. Efforts made to assist or seek assistance for the victims.

Credit for an early guilty plea is also taken into account and can sometimes be the difference between immediate custody, or a suspended sentence being considered. Credit for a guilty plea is highest at the first court appearance and allows for a one-third reduction in any sentence imposed.