Driving without a valid driving license

This article is about driving without a valid driving license. A driving license can lose its validity for several reasons. I mention a few.

The CBR (Central Office for Motor Vehicle Driver Testing) can impose an investigation of the driving aptitude by a psychiatrist in a number of cases. When the psychiatrist diagnoses alcohol abuse and considers the person concerned unfit to drive, the CBR can declare the driving license invalid.

A driving license can also lose its validity when the involved person does not cooperate with the investigation of the driving aptitude. This also goes for people who do not cooperate with an ‘educative measure alcohol & traffic’ or an ‘educative measure behaviour & traffic’.

Another reason is when the ‘repeat offender scheme driving under the influence of alcohol’ applies. In that case the driving license loses its validity by operation of the law. This scheme will be explained more elaborately elsewhere on this website.

Under article 9 paragraph 2 of the Road Traffic Act driving without a valid driving license is punishable. This is a crime. In article 176 paragraph 4 of the Road Traffic Act this is crimininalised with prison sentence of maximally 3 months and a penalty of maximally €8.200,- (2016). Besides this, a disqualification of driving of maximally 5 years can also be imposed.

To judge equal cases as equal as possible, courts and courts of appeal have drafted guidelines. These are sentencing orientation points. Based on these guidelines driving without a valid driving license is punished with a prison sentence of 2 weeks. This shows that this is perceived as a serious offence.

If an involved person does not know that his or her driving license has been declared invalid, a defence can be put forward against this. A ruling of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands of May 29 2012 (LJN: BW6673) shows that the single fact that the decision on the validity of the driving license by the CBR has been sent by registered post and has ot been returned is not enough to conclude that the suspect reasonably should have known that his or her driving license had been declared invalid.