Bermuda's "draconian" demerit point system has yet to be rewritten by lawmakers, six months on from it being condemned as a "manifest injustice" by the Court of Appeal.

Former United Bermuda Party politician Shawn Crockwell now plans to push for a change in the law once his proposed new political party gets off the ground.

He explained that the legislation, which was designed to punish repeat traffic offenders, can mean that some motorists are unfairly penalised.

Each traffic conviction in Bermuda results in two to 12 demerit points being added to a person's record. Every two years the slate is wiped clean. If an individual accumulates 12 points during a two-year period their driving license is revoked.

However, the Court of Appeal found that although the Bermuda law is based on the UK law, it lacks provisions found in the UK legislation and this makes it unfair to motorists.

According to Mr. Crockwell, who has analysed the law in both countries, not all traffic offences in the UK attract demerit points. In Bermuda, they are mandatory for all traffic offences.

In the UK, there is the option not to impose demerit points on top of a driving ban. Drivers who have points on their record and then get a ban for another offence can have the points wiped clean from their record in the light of the ban. And if a UK court imposes a disqualification as a result of too many demerit points, those points fall away and the slate is clean.

In Bermuda, however, there is no provision for drivers who are banned to have their points wiped away. This means that some motorists are punished twice once by being handed a ban for an offence such as impaired driving, and for a second time by having demerit points imposed on top of that.

The result is that local motorists can end up being put off the roads for many months longer than a UK driver would for the same offence having to serve out their driving ban and then wait for their penalty points to expire.

Appeal Court President Edward Zacca issued a written judgement in March in the case of driver Richard Cox, who complained about the system. In it, he said it appears that Bermuda's lawmakers did not think through the consequences of the legislation.

He said he hoped the legislature would reconsider the law in order to avoid "what appear to be unintended consequences and manifest injustice".

Mr. Crockwell, who was involved in the Richard Cox case as a defence lawyer, told The Royal Gazette he is disappointed that the issue is yet to be addressed.

"There's no discretion, even if it is affecting a person's livelihood as a taxi driver or a truck driver," he pointed out.

He explained that someone convicted of impaired driving must be handed both a mandatory 12 month driving ban and a mandatory 10-12 demerit points.

"If the offender already has on record accumulated points of at least two or more this would give rise to the draconian effect of a double disqualification for the same offence," he said. "Other jurisdictions deal with this anomaly by either not imposing penalty points in addition to a disqualification or wiping the demerit points register clean when an offender receives a punishment of disqualification."

And he argued: "The Bermuda demerit points scheme, as compared to other jurisdictions, is designed to be far more punitive and inflexible in its implementation.

"The overall lack of statutory discretion of the Court when imposing demerit points, the potential for double disqualification and potential for protracted periods of disqualification for minor traffic infractions all suggest that the Bermuda act may be overly cumbersome and oppressive."

Mr. Crockwell, who recently quit the United Bermuda Party with five other members to start a new party, said he and fellow rebel Michael Fahy had drafted amendments to the act while they were in the UBP, which they hoped would be adopted by Parliament. He told The Royal Gazette that he and Sen. Fahy will continue to push the issue when their as-yet-unnamed new political party gets up and running.

"We feel we have a good argument for encouraging the Government to amend the act," he said.