DriverCheck aims to provide clarity of motoring offence codes, to help their clients understand these offences and what it means within the drivers record.

Overview

If you’re convicted of a motoring offence, the court will fine you and ‘endorse’ your driving licence, ie put penalty points on your driving licence.  How many depends on the offence.  The points are recorded  on your licence against the offence.  Every offence (e.g. speeding, careless driving) is given a Motoring Offence Code which is entered onto your licence.  Motoring Offence Codes are made up of two letters followed by a number, e.g. SP30, SP50, CU80.

There are two official records of your Penalty Points.  One is the written record on the paper part of your driving licence.  The other is an electronic record kept by DVLA.  It is important that these records match.  If you get Points from a court they will tell DVLA about this.  If you do not submit your licence to the court, you must send it to DVLA to be updated. If you don’t, DVLA will revoke your driving licence.  They do not always tell drivers that they have done this and many drivers unknowingly drive on a revoked licence as a result (see code LC20, below).

Points stay on your licence for 4 years or longer.  That doesn’t mean they are live for the purposes of totting up.  If  you get 12 points in a three year period, you will get a minimum 6-month ban. (For New Drivers the ban comes at 6 points.)  It is possible to remove the points from your licence once they have expired.

We have a full list of all motor offence codes available, please get in touch if you would like them sent over.