eyretile Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Unwitting motorists face £1,000 fines as thousands of photocard driving licences expire Thousands of motorists are at risk of being fined up to £1,000 because they are unwittingly driving without a valid licence. They risk prosecution after failing to spot the extremely small print on their photocard licence which says it automatically expires after 10 years and has to be renewed - even though drivers are licensed to drive until the age of 70. The fiasco has come to light a decade after the first batch of photo licences was issued in July 1998, just as the they start to expire. Motoring organisations blamed the Government for the fiasco and said 'most' drivers believed their licences were for life. A mock-up driving licence from 1998 when the photocards were launched shows the imminent expiry date as item '4b' They said officials had failed to publicise sufficiently the fact that new-style licences - unlike the old paper ones - expire after a set period and have to be renewed. To rub salt into wounds, drivers will have to a pay £17.50 to renew their card Official DVLA figures reveal that while 16,136 expired this summer, so far only 11,566 drivers have renewed, leaving 4,570 outstanding. With another 300,000 photocard licences due to expire over the coming year, experts fear the number of invalid licences will soar, putting thousands more drivers in breach of the law and at risk of a fine. At the heart of the confusion is the small print on the tiny credit-card-size photo licence, which is used in conjunction with the paper version. Just below the driver name on the front of the photocard licence is a series of dates and details - each one numbered. Number 4b features a date in tiny writing, but no explicit explanation as to what it means. The date's significance is only explained if the driver turns over the card and reads the key on the back which states that '4b' means 'licence valid to'. Even more confusingly, an adjacent table on the rear of the card sets out how long the driver is registered to hold a licence - that is until his or her 70th birthday. A total of 25million new-style licences have been issued but - motoring experts say - drivers were never sufficiently warned they would expire after 10 years. Motorists who fail to renew their licences in time are allowed to continue driving .. But the DVLA says they could be charged with 'failing to surrender their licence', an offence carrying a £1,000 fine. AA president, Edmund King said: 'It is not generally known that photocard licences expire: there appears to be a lack of information that people will have to renew these licences. People think they have already paid them for once over and that is it. It will come as a surprise to motorists and a shock that they have to pay an extra £17.50.' The AA called on the Government to use the annual £450million from traffic enforcement fines to offset the renewal charge. Before photocard licences were introduced, old-style paper licences were valid until the age of 70. Many motorists still believe this to be the case with the new ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaiden Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Just checked mine, ok for a while yet. thanks for the tip anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeS Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 They sent me a reminder... also, i remember reading the little letter that came with it saying that i'd have to renew (this was when I was 17...) and didnt forget that there'd be a charge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR BENN Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 im 37 and been driving 20 years and ive never had a plastic licence card. ive only got the paper one i got when i was 17(its even survived 2 times in the washing machine ). i know others the same as me -never thought about applying for a plastic one . i had to produce last year and the police were happy with the paper one and never mentioned the new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panthera Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 just checked mine, got 4 and a half years left on it, thanks for the tip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panthera Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 im 37 and been driving 20 years and ive never had a plastic licence card. ive only got the paper one i got when i was 17(its even survived 2 times in the washing machine ). i know others the same as me -never thought about applying for a plastic one . i had to produce last year and the police were happy with the paper one and never mentioned the new one. i only got a photo id driving lisence because i lost my paper one during a house move which then turned up 3 weeks after the photo one was delivered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR BENN Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 i only got a photo id driving lisence because i lost my paper one during a house move which then turned up 3 weeks after the photo one was delivered. i dont think you have to have one do you ? my paper one expires when im 70 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeS Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 i dont think you have to have one do you ? my paper one expires when im 70 I think the OP was getting at the fact that this applies to those who passed their tests in 1998 or 2000 for me when these were first issued along with the paper bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickyboyzuk Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Reminders are being issued to all those who have a photo card that is due to expire. The problem is that a large number of people have the wrong address on their licence and therefore might not get the reminder (wrong address also carries a fine). Magistrates have not yet been given guidance on this matter, so we don't know what the likelihood is of people being pulled before the courts. It does sound like a nice little earner for the DVLA though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayne67 Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Ohh just checked mine. It expires Oct 14. It also has a little holographic part below the address details with the date on it too! Cheeky monkeys! Jayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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