How A Drink Driving Conviction Can Affect Your Licence And Points System.
A drink driving conviction in the UK carries some significant legal repercussions.
Aside from potential jail time and an impact on your criminal record, your driving licence and its associated penalty points system are the main things to be impacted.
Understanding these consequences is crucial for anyone facing such charges, and anyone thinking about driving while under the influence of alcohol in the future.
Legal limits and offences.
In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the legal alcohol limit for drivers is:
- 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.
- 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
- 107 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of urine.
Exceeding these limits constitutes a drink driving offence, which leads to some severe penalties.
Penalties for drink driving.
The penalties for drink driving depend on the specific offence, as well as its severity and the effects of your drink driving. For example:
Being in charge of a vehicle while above the legal limit:
- Up to 3 months’ imprisonment.
- A fine of up to £2,500.
- Automatically banned from driving for a minimum of 12 months.
Driving or attempting to drive while above the legal limit or unfit through drink:
- Up to 6 months’ imprisonment.
- An unlimited fine.
- A driving ban for at least 1 year (OR 3 years if you’ve been convicted twice in 10 years).
Causing death by careless driving when under the influence of alcohol:
- Life imprisonment.
- An unlimited fine.
- A driving ban for at least 5 years.
An extended driving test required before your licence is returned.
As well as this, refusing to provide a specimen of breath, blood, or urine for analysis can lead to:
- Up to 6 months’ imprisonment
- An unlimited fine
- A driving ban for at least 1 year
The Impact of drink driving on your driving licence and penalty points.
A drink driving conviction will lead to a driving disqualification, as well as an endorsement on your driving record.
Drink driving endorsement codes include DR10, DR20, DR30, DR31, DR61.
These specific codes remain on your driving licence for 11 years from the date of conviction, therefore having an effect for 11 years.
Each of these codes relates to different offences, and result in a different number of penalty points being added to your license.
Drink driving endorsement codes also include DR40, DR50, DR60 and DR70. These specific codes stay on a driving record for 4 years from the date of the offence or conviction, therefore having an effect for 4 years.
This can result in:
- High car insurance premiums.
- Difficulty obtaining any car insurance.
- Difficulty obtaining jobs that require a clean driving license, such as delivery driver, or even manual labourer who requires a vehicle to work.
Although an endorsement remains on your driving licence for up to 11 years, under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, a drink driving conviction becomes ‘spent’ after 5 years.
The endorsement will still be visible on your driving record, however you’ll likely no longer need to declare a spent conviction to insurers after the 5 years.
The implication on car insurance.
A drink driving conviction significantly increases car insurance premiums, as insurers will not likely view you as a high-risk driver. This will therefore lead to higher costs, or even refusal of coverage altogether.
You will also have to declare unspent convictions to insurers, and failure to do so can invalidate a policy.
The implication on life insurance.
As well as car insurance, drink driving has an effect on life insurance. For many providers, they won’t pay out and will deny a claim if the death was due to drink driving.
Similarly, it might be harder to take out a life insurance policy with drink driving convictions. This is because the applications will likely require you to answer questions about your health and previous convictions, and a history of drink driving can result in a refused application.
To conclude, a drink driving conviction has some serious, long-lasting effects on your driving licence, potential penalty points, and insurance premiums.
Drink driving is NEVER worth it. Not only does it have an effect on these three things, but it’s incredibly dangerous for both yourself and everyone around you. To avoid jail time, driving bans, points on your license, and causing potential danger, NEVER drink drive.
Hope you’ve found our article, How A Drink Driving Conviction Can Affect Your Licence And Points System useful.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. If you’d like to add a comment or thought on this post, please use the comments section below. I can also be contacted via the online contact form. Keep up to date with the latest news on social media.