danbhardy:
I got banned in November last year under totting up for 2 counts of failing to notify. I wasn’t aware of it
Ignorance is no defence. If you were unaware of being banned - and maybe of the original requests for driver details - there must have been some sort of reason. One common reason is a failure to notify a change of address. Another common reason is disposing of a vehicle without notifying DVLA. There is also the murkier area of shared use vehicles where there is genuine doubt as to who was driving at the time in question - was any doubt genuine, or was the purported doubt manufactured in an attempt to get the driver off the hook?
A dim view is taken of failing to notify driver details - even if there was no deliberate malicious intent - because of the way failure to notify manipulates the system. If you were driving at the time of the alleged offences, you likely got a harsher penalty than you otherwise would (speeding is typically 3 points, not the 6 of failing to notify). If you were not driving, then a guilty driver may have got away with an offence.
If there is deliberate intent behind a failure to notify, it can result in prosecution for perverting the course of justice.
I’m not making any of these points to get at you and certainly not to try you again over the internet. I’m making them because they are the sort of considerations that will be in the back of the Traffic Commissioner’s mind at the hearing.
Nothing that happens in front of the Traffic Commissioner can go behind the convictions themselves. The Traffic Commissioner has been notified that the court has found you guilty and must treat you as guilty. The Traffic Commissioner is concerned with your fitness to hold vocational entitlement in the light of your driving history, not the justice or otherwise of your convictions.
If I read the table in the guidance document shep532 posted a link to correctly, I believe the starting point for your situation is a warning letter (disqualification of less than 12 months of an existing vocational licence holder). However, the Traffic Commissioner might well take a dimmer view of the situation considering that:
- the offences are all relatively recent
- you failed to realise somehow that you had been disqualified before you drove whilst disqualified
- you are serving concurrent bans for driving whilst disqualified and ‘totting up’
- I suspect that the only reason why you are not on 15 points now (6 for the BA10, 6 for the IN10 and 3 for the CU80) is that you committed all these offences whilst already disqualified for ‘totting up’ (it is possible that you do have points, but they’re not currently showing owing to you being banned - what did the court say in relation to points when you were convicted of these offences?)
The Traffic Commissioner might also question whether you passed your category C test whilst your ban was suspended owing to the pending appeal in order to be treated as an existing vocational licence holder by the Traffic Commissioner rather than a new applicant. New applicants are treated more harshly by the Traffic Commissioner than existing licence holders.
The reality is that you likely stand a fairly low chance of being able to find work as a vocational driver until these endorsements have disappeared from your licence. Insurance companies tend to take a dim view of IN10 (driving without insurance), and the BA10 (driving whilst disqualified) does not look good either. That said, you put time and money into acquiring your vocational licence, and it is worth putting up an argument to be entitled to its return once you have served your ban.
Be aware that if your vocational entitlements are not removed by the Traffic Commissioner, you will have to apply for them back by submitting a D2 form once your ban and any vocational entitlement suspension imposed by the Traffic Commissioner is over. The form you are sent to get your licence back at the end of your ban only covers non-vocational entitlements.
Once you get your licence back, you need to keep your nose clean. A further conviction for driving whilst disqualified takes you into territory beyond a mere ban - possibly as far as a custodial sentence.
I hope all goes well for you.
