New driver's plea for ban ignored by magistrate (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Twickenham driver's plea for ban ignored by magistrate

8:00am Tuesday 19th March 2013 in News By Clare Buchanan

A new driver asked magistrates to ban him from driving so he could avoid penalty points, which would force him to revert to learner status.

Pravi Khambhaita, 20, of Brunel Walk, Twickenham, pleaded guilty at South West London Magistrates’ Court to being in charge of a car while above the legal alcohol limit.

Khambhaita pleaded with magistrates not to punish him with penalty points because people who receive six or more points within the first two years of passing their test have their licence revoked by the DVLA.

He told the court he would prefer to be disqualified so he would not have to reapply for a provisional licence and retake his theory and practical driving tests.

Head magistrate James McLeod ignored Khambhaita’s pleas and handed him 10 penalty points and a £215 fine when he appeared in court on Wednesday, March 13.

The court heard Khambhaita was nearly three times the legal drink-drive limit when he was found sat in the driver’s seat of a Ford Focus in Nelson Road, Whitton, at 4am on Sunday, March 3.

Khambhaita, who represented himself in court, claimed his friend had been driving the car but ran away after he crashed into a lamp post and left him with the keys and therefore in charge of the car.

Prosecutor in the case Tony Curtis said a witness saw Khambhaita behind the wheel, revving the engine to try to move the car.

He said: “He said he had been at a party where he had been drinking alcohol and he asked his friend to drive as he was not in a fit state.

“The defendant stated that he got into the driver’s seat, though he cannot recall how he got there.

“He agreed the engine was running and the keys were in the ignition.”