Quote: mat "By definition for anything other than a grade A offence they have to give a ban. Early plea guidelines say they can only give minimum ban from the range allowed for that grade. They don't have option of fines or warning letters for anything above a grade A if I'm reading guidelines correctly.'"
Rule 2.9 in the Sentencing Guidlines COULD give a get-out for the panel to step outside of the guidelines AND below, due to mitigating factors.
I'd not want to put any bets on eligible mitigating factors here, though.
And this "early guilty" plea business is just the same as accepting a fixed motoring offence penalty, instead of going up before the beak and risking getting a hammering at the top end of the sentencing options - for having the temerity to contest the charge and wasting the court's time in search of justice. As far as I can see?