Banned, driver who had 144 points on his licence

A DRIVER has been banned from the road after clocking up 144 points on his licence.

Ashley Peart, 27, was disqualified for three years when he appeared in court in connection with 24 different speeding offences.

Peart’s number of points was 132 higher than the figure – 12 – that normally sees motorists banned.

The court heard how he had failed to tell police who was behind the wheel of four different cars caught speeding but all registered in his name.

An Audi A3, a BMW 1 Series, a Ford Focus and a Ford Focus Sport were caught breaking the speed limit in the space of six months.

Police contacted Peart but he either ignored them or did not respond with information about who had been driving, Southend magistrates heard. However, last week he appeared in court to plead guilty to failing to identify the driver of a vehicle.

Peart, a plasterer, provided insufficient information about the incidents 17 times and five times he did not reply, prosecutors said.

After the hearing, a seasoned traffic officer said Peart’s points total was more than double any number he had seen before.

PC Daniel Cordwell added: ‘Peart produced insufficient and misleading details on numerous occasions and by his own admission he had an overwhelming amount of offences to deal with in a short period of time, which he chose to try and ignore in the hope they would go away.

‘These cases did not go away and he has been disqualified.’

PC Cordwell said drivers trying to ‘get off ’ speeding tickets by claiming someone else was driving risked being prosecuted for perverting the course of justice. At his home in Westcliff, Essex, Peart admitted he had no idea if he was driving on each of the 24 occasions the cars were caught speeding.

But he went before magistrates and, representing himself, pleaded guilty to all counts because he had no option, he said.

He said the cars caught speeding belonged to people he knew, but claimed he had driven them with their permission, using temporary insurance policies.

Peart said: ‘I said to the judge there is a possibility maybe five or ten of them [speeding tickets] could be me, but they are not all me.

‘I can’t prove which is which so I had to plead guilty to it.’

He added that the police had sent so many letters that ‘I felt like I didn’t want to open them’.

The 24 counts Peart pleaded to each carried a six-point endorsement on his licence.

He was fined £1,490 and was ordered to pay court costs of £800 and a victim surcharge of £30.