Making the roads safer??

[yokohama]

Yesterday's news but this is a joke.
Already disqualified from driving for the fifth time, no insurance so, why not jump into a car pished, having already had a line or two of coke, and crash it. Judge says the driver, "could have easily killed somebody" and has "one of the worst driving records I have seen."
Result? A 16 week suspended jail sentence.
What kind of deterrent is that?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-59643479

[johnnyrod]

God knows mate, we're just the hoi poilloi, pretty sure we'd have had the book rightly thrown at us for something like this. Well, I'd like to think so; when they changed the points system a way back and 12 got you an automatic ban, the govt said that needing to drive for work was no excuse, in fact someone should be more careful if that's the case. That didn't last long.

[Biker Biggles]

Driving while banned for a previous crime should be treated as contempt of court which is a more serious affair. Repeat serious offenders should be banned from driving permanently or until they can prove they are fit to be allowed back on the road.

[Ruffy]

+1. It's utterly contemptable that someone banned from driving should think it was OK to get into a driver's seat and set off.

It's even worse if they're drunk or high - should be a sentence doubler, not a mitigating factor to excuse the behaviour.

This doesn't come close to being a tolerable mistake or excusable 'error of judgement'. Surely no reasonable person could think it was anywhere near OK nowadays to drive while banned, or be so ignorant of the need to have a licence and be sober before trying?