288 Scots driving with more than 12 licence points

More than 6,500 motorists UK-wide, including 288 in Scotland, are driving with more than 12 points on their licence, figures obtained from the DVLA have revealed.

Charity Brake urged courts to get tough on drivers. Picture: Getty

A total of 6,523 drivers with more than 12 points – the usual limit before a driver is issued with a court driving ban – are still legally driving on Britain’s roads. Some have clocked up as many as 45 penalty points, yet are still allowed to drive.

The vast majority of drivers who clock up more than 12 points are banned from the road for a period, but legislation allows sheriffs and magistrates to retain a person’s entitlement to drive even if they have 12 or more points if it is considered that disqualification would cause “exceptional hardship”.

The figures, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by The Co-operative Insurance, found that Glasgow has the highest number of these types of drivers in Scotland – though it is only ranked 42nd in the UK – with 57 drivers holding more than 12 points on their licence.

Edinburgh has 43 such drivers, while Kirkcaldy comes next in the list with 29. Even Kirkwall has two drivers currently on the roads with more than 12 points on their ­licences.

Philip Goose, senior community engagement officer at road safety charity Brake said: “It is outrageous that these individuals, who rack up offence after offence, are allowed to continue driving at enormous risk to the public.

“These individual have already had ample opportunity to desist breaking the law before reaching 12 points and facing disqualification.

“It’s time for the courts to get tough with these selfish, irresponsible and potentially deadly drivers, and put a stop to their illegal and dangerous driving before it results in a devastating crash.”

Drivers aged under 25 are the least likely to have 12 or more points, the research found, after people aged 55-plus.

Steve Kerrigan, head of telematics at The Co-operative Insurance, said: “It is clear that there are a large number of drivers on the roads with over 12 penalty points on their licences.

“Despite young drivers having the reputation for being the worst motorists, when it comes to the drivers that have an excessive amount of penalty points we have found that in majority of cases older drivers, aged 26 to 55, have more points than any other, and as a proportion of their age group.”

Two of the worst offenders in the UK are a female driver in Blackburn with 38 penalty points on her licence and a male driver in Liverpool who has 45 penalty points on his licence.

According to the government’s driving and transport department website, if a driver has 12 or more penalty points, they could be banned from driving for six months if they have received 12 penalty points or more within three years.

Someone who then has a second disqualification within three years could be banned from the road for 12 months, and there could be a two-year ban for anyone who faces a third disqualification.