The Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1996

Production of licence

29.—(1) Where a person who is the holder of a licence is convicted of an offence involving obligatory or discretionary disqualification, and a court proposes to make an order disqualifying him or an order under Article 49, the court must, unless it has already received them, require the licence and its counterpart to be produced to it.

(2) If the holder of the licence has not caused it and its counterpart to be delivered, or posted it and its counterpart, in accordance with Article 11 and does not produce it and its counterpart as required under this Article or under Article 8 of the [1980 NI 6] Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1980 then, unless he satisfies the court that he has applied for a new licence and has not received it—

(a) he is guilty of an offence, and

(b) the licence shall be suspended from the time when its production was required until it and its counterpart are produced to the court and shall, while suspended, be of no effect.

(3) Paragraph (2) does not apply where the holder of the licence—

(a) has caused a current receipt for the licence and its counterpart issued under Article 62 to be delivered to the clerk of the court before which the proceedings were brought not later than the day before the date appointed for the hearing, or

(b) has posted such a receipt, at such time that in the ordinary course of post it would be delivered not later than that day, in a letter duly addressed to the clerk and either registered or sent by the recorded delivery service, or

(c) surrenders such a receipt to the court at the hearing,

and produces the licence and its counterpart to the court immediately on their return.