When justice doesn’t add up

Last week saw the return of the court list to the pages of the Peterborough Telegraph. It had been another victim of the coronavirus pandemic – although sadly it didn’t mean nobody was breaking the law.

The list of those convicted at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court is not a who’s who of Mr Bigs. It’s not a roll call of criminal masterminds.It’s a list of petty criminals and, in the case of motoring offenders, not even really criminals at all (hands up anyone who drives a car who has not hit 36mph in a 30mph zone?).

My aim is not to trivialise speeding; quite the opposite. I fully endorse the Speed Kills safety message and anyone who gets caught speeding should be punished.

Talking of endorsements, I reckon the law has it about right with three points and a fine for a ‘normal’ speeding offence, ie not an idiotic 150mph on the A1 or 60 mph on Dogsthorpe Road.

And under the totting up procedure you get three chances – if you are caught a fourth time it will get you to 12 points and a ban.

In this day and age most of us rely on our cars –to be without them would be a huge inconvenience so having reached nine points you might think a serial speeder would think twice.

Or maybe not, because it seems the totting up system doesn’t add up.

In last week’s court list there were no fewer than three speeding motorists who should have been banned under totting up.

But none of them were, with the guilty parties being able to avoid a ban claiming ‘exceptional hardship’.

There were some details about one person who was spared . It read “No totting disqualification – Exceptional hardship found – as an estate agent – impact on housing situation and on trainees he is responsible for.’’

I Googled what constitutes ‘exceptional hardship’ and the top hit took to me a solicitors’ website which boasted: “Our success rate for helping totting up clients avoid a six month ban is over 94% per cent.’’

Wow, 94 per cent, not very exceptional at all.