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Licence question - Suffering a seizure

Recently the police took my car away from me on the premise that I did not have my license to hand, (the DVLA had not returned it from the six month ban I received in May 2010). This ban ended on 7th October 2010 and as the judge had told me I was legal to drive on this date at the court hearing I assumed that the license would be returned in due course and that I was ok to drive.

Is this the case? Also the Police charged me £150 to tow it away, although my girlfriend, who has no points on her license, was there at the time, and was willing to drive the vehicle home. But the Police did not let her, stating that they did not trust her to not let me get back in the drivers seat. Is this legal?

Asked on 21 January 2010 by CS, via email

Answered by Honest John
Our legal advisor, Lucy Bonham Carter, replies: “They cannot take the car away because you did not have your licence to hand but they can take it away if you do not have a licence. If you’re disqualified for 56 days or more you need to apply to renew your driving licence before you can return to driving so in your case at the time you were stopped you did not have a licence and the police were perfectly within their rights to lift the car. In such circumstances the car being lifted is part of the "deterrence" as well as prevention of you committing a future offence and there is no requirement on the part of the police to facilitate or allow your girlfriend to take over the driving.”
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