Flintshire driver with 229 points still holds valid licence

Points are issued for road offences, such as driving without due care and attention, drink-driving and speeding.

Drivers are usually banned for six months if they receive 12 or more points within a three-year period.

They can stay on licences for up to 11 years after an offence, meaning some people with multiple convictions are legally allowed behind the wheel because they have served their disqualification.

People can also try to convince a court a ban would result in exceptional hardship.

Alison Ashworth, a senior solicitor advocate in motoring law, explained the number of penalty points were “not necessarily a pertinent consideration” when it comes to these arguments.

This is because it “rests solely on the consequences of the disqualification on that individual and those around them [and] the offence itself is not really a relevant consideration”.

Hardship circumstances include having family members who are dependent on your ability to drive.

“The court wants to punish the offender, but they don’t want to punish innocent third parties that haven’t done anything wrong,” she said.

“Ultimately, it is a discretionary remedy, so you may well get a very sympathetic bench of magistrates on one particular occasion, and they may allow somebody to continue driving with more points than otherwise you would expect.”