Motoring laws get stricter

Posted By: James

Tuesday 10th June 2014

The government is to increase the severity of penalties relating to driving offences as part of a series of sweeping reforms to magistrates' powers. The maximum fine for speeding on a motorway is to be quadrupled to £10,000, while fines for using a mobile phone at the wheel and breaking the speed limit on dual carriageways will also be increased from £1,000 to £4,000. Magistrates will also have the power to impose unlimited fines for more serious offences from now on, such as careless driving or driving without insurance. Jeremy Wright, the justice minister, stated: "Financial penalties set at the right level can be an effective way of punishing criminals and deterring them from further offending.” Motoring organisations were disappointed by the announcement, and warned that the changes could result in innocent motorists neglecting to challenge speeding tickets in court for fear of incurring greater penalties. Proffesor Stephen Glaister, the director of the RAC Foundation, said: "People who break the law should bear the consequences but this seems such a wholesale change to the system you have to ask what was going so badly wrong before?”

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