The Road Safety Act 2006 created a number of new offences intended to impose significant penalties on drivers who are involved in fatal collisions.
One of the most concerning of these offences is causing death whilst driving unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured. You will be convicted of this offence if the prosecution can establish the following facts:
- That you were driving a motor vehicle on a road;
- That by virtue of your presence a fatality occurred;
- That you were unlicensed, disqualified, or unlicensed.
Note from the above list the absence of bad driving on your part. Offences of causing death by dangerous driving or death by careless driving require evidence that your driving was at fault and that you caused the accident. With this offence that is not the case.
You could be involved in an accident which is entirely the fault of another party. If, as the result of an administrative oversight, you were unaware that your driving licence had been revoked or your insurance had lapsed, you could be prosecuted.
The maximum sentence for this offence is 2 years imprisonment.
In order to avoid the risk of prosecution for this offence, our expert motoring offence solicitors recommend that you routinely check your insurance documents and driving licence so that you are sure that everything is up to date and in effect. Spending a couple of minutes checking your documents could help minimise the risk of prosecution should you be unfortunate enough to be involved in a serious collision.
By motoring offences solicitor, Carl Johnson
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