‘I LOST MY JOB AFTER MISTAKE DRIVING BAN’
AN INTERIM ORDER SENT IN ERROR BANNED DRIVER FROM THE ROADS
A MAN who claims he was wrongly banned from the roads by a court order is planning to sue the legal system after he lost his job.
Richard Lancaster, 50, was banned from the roads by an interim order after his licence was credited with 12 points under the totting-up rules.
The initial ban, which he was told about in a letter sent by Hull Magistrates’ Court on August 1, caused Mr Lancaster to lose his new job which, with promotions, would have seen him earn a salary of £45,000.
But after attending a court hearing on October 10, he was told the letter he received through the post was an error and he should have been allowed to keep driving.
After attending the same court again on Wednesday, the hearing was adjourned and he was allowed to keep his licence under the “hardship” reasons he cited.
He was fined £85 and an additional point was added to his licence – bringing the total to 13.
Mr Lancaster, of Blenheim Street, Scarborough, said: “I’ve gone from regional manager to nothing – unemployed.
“I would accept human error, but not at justice level. I don’t accept it at all.
“The job offers were coming in and could be earning a lot, but now it’s set me back real time – 30 years without a ban and I feel shafted.
“It’s given me depression. I parked the vehicle up, rang up work and lost my job.
“I want to sue them for my loss of earnings.”
Mr Lancaster had nine points on his licence from three separate speeding offences before being caught again in Howden.
He was caught going over a 40mph speed limit in July this year and a few days later on August 1 received a court summons saying he was made the subject of an immediate interim driving ban until his court date on October 10.
Mr Lancaster was between jobs after leaving his management role with Aramark Facilities and was supposed to be starting a job with British Gas when he had to call them to tell them he couldn’t drive.
He was then left, and still remains, unemployed.
Mr Lancaster said: “I could be earning £45,000 as a regional manger driving around all over the country – roads that are not familiar to me.
“My other three speeding fines were in Scotland after the roads around Edinburgh and Glasgow lowered their laws to 20mph.
“They are really easy to break in the big cities.”
At the hearing he was told that the courts should not have banned him until the court appearance and adjourned the hearing for another 14 days.
He reappeared at Hull Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, October 24, where he pleaded his innocence and hardship of “not being able to get a similar job in the profession at the age of 50”.
He escaped with an extra point on his licence and received an £85 fine, but was allowed to keep driving.
Mr Lancaster said: “The magistrates told me I shouldn’t have received a ban and they said sorry.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “We can’t comment on individual cases, but it is possible to appeal a magistrates’ court decision.”