A Limited Good Character
Page 42
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
pOSSESSION of a driving licence is not merely a passport to the use of a vehicle on the highway if the holder be challenged by someone entitled to ask for it; it is also, for many people, their talisman to the only form of employment of which they are capable. In addition, by the presence or absence of entries on those end pages in the licence which bear the ominous words: "These pages must not be removed or defaced," a man's prospective employer or a court can ascertain his past record as a driver.
At least, that would be wholly true if there did not exist the possibility of a driver obtaining a " clean " licence after three years without any fresh convictions. This is provided for by Section 5 of the Road Traffic Act 1934, and, where the endorsement is in respect of a speeding conviction, this will count against a driver for only one full year for the purpose of issuing a clean licence. As it is, therefore, it can be seen that the statement above is only partially true.
Recently, some publicity has been given to several cases in which defendants on motoring charges have stated that they had clean licences— meaning thereby to induce the magistrates to accept them as drivers with "good characters," either to weigh in the balance in deciding their guilt, or to persuade the magistrates to mitigate the punishment they might otherwise have awarded. What the defendants omitted to mention —and they were angry and hurt when crossexamination by the prosecutor elicited the fact-was that, although their licences were clean, they had numerous convictions previous to the past three years; in fact one of them had to admit to over 30 previous to 1946!
The provision, therefore, seems rather pointless unless the view is taken—and accepted both by the courts and a man's employer—that a veil should be drawn over the period previous to the three "clean years," and that in no circumstances or for any purposes can a man's convictions previous to that period—be they numerous or not —be cast in his face again. Was that the intention of the framers of the 1934 Act?
It must be remembered that unless minor convictions were endorsed on licences, the courts would almost certainly be ignorant of many convictions of persons brought before them, because the Criminal Record Office (understandably) can keep track of only the more serious offences in the criminal calendar. It do seem seem likely, therefore, that the intention behind the idea of a clean licence after three years was that the offender's character should be washed clean as well—at least as regard § his driving.
Two questions, therefore, arise out of this situation—one of legafrtheory and the Other of practical business interest. First, is it legally right for a defendant to be questioned about his previous driving record when all that is known is that his present licence is clean? Secondly, unless an employer is prepared to show complete disinterest in his drivers' past records, it means that he cannot know, when engaging a driver, whether he is genuinely a "no conviction" man or one with a recently clean record but many convictions.
Nobody would suggest that a clean licence is automatically a certificate of good driving; nor is the converse necessarily true, but, obviously, a clean licence is at least a recommendation. Has the issue of clean licences after, three years of trouble-free driving been worthwhile, or does it present a distorted and misleading picture?