10 Years Later

Convicted Driver Insurance

helen4476

Member
4th March 2021 marks ten years since my arrest for drink driving. Whilst I have absolutely no intention of a second offence, I understand after ten years, the police/magistrates cannot take it into account if it were to happen again. Is this ten years of the date of the arrest, or the date of the court appearance? I had to go to court twice - first time in March and for final sentencing in April.
 
4th March 2021 marks ten years since my arrest for drink driving. Whilst I have absolutely no intention of a second offence, I understand after ten years, the police/magistrates cannot take it into account if it were to happen again. Is this ten years of the date of the arrest, or the date of the court appearance? I had to go to court twice - first time in March and for final sentencing in April.

I'm sure you never want to be in that position again.

It's 10 years from the date of conviction, the day you were banned in court.
 
Grice96 is correct. 10 years from the date you were convicted... until the date you are next caught, not when the future case goes to court eventually.
 
Thank you, both.

However is that the date of my first court date (6 month interim ban) or second court date (confirmation of length of ban)?
 
Your ban is from the date of your interim ban, it counts towards your disqualification.... but the law says the relevant date is the date of CONVICTION to the date you are caught. If you were convicted of drink driving on the date of the interim ban being given then that is the relevant date (including pleading guilty) If you pleaded guilty to, say, careless driving but not guilty to drink driving and were given an interim ban, then it would be the subsequent date that counted. (Unlikely)

Can you clarify your circumstances as to your court appearances and what happened at each one?
 
I was arrested 4th March 2011, released without the ban permitted to drive until court (I didnt drive).

I had the one charge of driving whilst over the legal limit.

21st March was my first court appearance - 6 month interim ban. I pleaded guilty

11th April was my second court appearance - given 24 month ban

I attended the drink driving course, so the ban reduced to 18 months which finished on 21st September 2012.
 
So the 10 years run from 21st March 2011.
If you have to have a DBS check for work, the conviction will appear for a total of 11 years, but if you only apply for a job that does a ‘Police Check’ then it expires after 5 years from the date of conviction so that is long gone.
 
Thank you price1367.

Interesting. I thought a conviction stayed with you for life, reguardless whether its considered spent or not.
 
It does stay on file, but is only discloseable as I described.
There are only rare things like applying to join the police where a conviction is never spent.
 
If you are going to be working with vulnerable people, children or adults, you may be required to have an enhanced DBS check and this does require you to declare all convictions spent or unspent, however the older the conviction and the less relevant to your job role then the more likely it is that an employer/governing body will pass over it as being no longer applicable. Don't make the mistake of not declaring it on an enhanced check, a friend of mine forgot a conviction for cannabis when he was a teenager and several years later when he filled in for me while I was in hospital and he had to do an enhanced check to take on my role so didn't declare it. Social services picked up on it and he not only lost his job but also his career as it would now follow him forever with them, not that he had the conviction but that he didn't declare it, it's seen as a matter of trustworthiness.
 
If you are going to be working with vulnerable people, children or adults, you may be required to have an enhanced DBS check and this does require you to declare all convictions spent or unspent, however the older the conviction and the less relevant to your job role then the more likely it is that an employer/governing body will pass over it as being no longer applicable. Don't make the mistake of not declaring it on an enhanced check, a friend of mine forgot a conviction for cannabis when he was a teenager and several years later when he filled in for me while I was in hospital and he had to do an enhanced check to take on my role so didn't declare it. Social services picked up on it and he not only lost his job but also his career as it would now follow him forever with them, not that he had the conviction but that he didn't declare it, it's seen as a matter of trustworthiness.
For several years there has been an exemption to declaring ‘minor’ convictions (including drink driving) even from DBS checks, (unless it involves a prison Sentence) but that was only for a single conviction once 11 years have passed. That was amended on 2020 to say that all such minor convictions do not have to be declared once 11 years have passed:
 
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