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Drivers v The Law: The battle commences as couples swap penalty points

Gareth Rubin
Mar 4th 2010 at 6:00AM

Filed under: Travel

Drivers are increasingly swapping penalty points with partners to avoid one of them getting a ban. Up and down the country, dodgy couples are illegally colluding, but the worst offenders are in London, where 7% of drivers admitted it.

We know this from a survey by motor insurance company Direct Line, in which 2% nationally admitted talking a spouse into taking the rap for some dodgy driving. Three years ago, only 1.5% said they did it.

Drivers aged 18-35 are the most likely to go in for it, with 4% owning up.

Andy Goldby, director of motor underwriting at Direct Line, said: "Motorists are increasingly risking perverting the course of justice in order to maintain a clean licence, as well as to avoid a driving ban.However, trying to escape convictions by swapping points with another person is illegal and can lead to prosecution. Quite simply, it is not worth the risk."

But this isn't the only battle line being drawn between the authorities and motorists at the moment.

Those in North Lincolnshire are up in arms about the fact that they could soon be fined £20 by the local authority for leaving their car engines running while parked.

The council said the fines would only be given to "irresponsible drivers" if they kept their engines running needlessly for a long time and refused to switch them off when asked to do so.

In nearby York, three car owners had a bit of a shock when the floodwaters of the river Ouse receded. As soon as the cars were no longer under water, ticket inspectors gave them penalty notices because they were parked on double yellow lines.

Shaun Binns, landlord of the nearby Lowther pub, told the Daily Mail: "Normally you get people parking on there but they move them in time to avoid flooding. But in this case I think the river's come up very quickly and they must have been caught out.

"There are double yellow lines down there and I suppose you could say if you're not allowed to park there then you shouldn't, but the inspector must have seen the cars had been flooded and you'd think they'd have a bit of compassion."

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