Will I lose my licence?

5.1The disqualification provisions

On conviction for a first offence under s 111, the court must disqualify the offender for the automatic period unless it orders a shorter period, and no shorter period may be less than the statutory minimum. The automatic and minimum periods are set in the table to s 205 of the Road Transport Act 2013 [review: section number, six months automatic, three months minimum for a first offence, twelve and six for a second or subsequent]. The structure is deliberately asymmetric: the court has a discretion to reduce but not to waive, and the minimum operates as a floor that survives any quantity of mitigation.

5.2The s 10 exception

Disqualification is a consequence of conviction. Where the court deals with the matter under s 10 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999, no conviction is recorded and the disqualification provision is never engaged. This is not a "waiver" of the disqualification; it is the absence of the precondition for it. The distinction matters in submissions, because a Judge who is told "I ask you to waive the disqualification" is being asked for something the Act does not permit, whereas a Judge who is asked to proceed under s 10 is being asked for something it does.

The interaction has a practical consequence the student should notice: for a s 111 first offence the s 10 argument is almost always about the licence, and the court knows it. Submissions that pretend otherwise lose credibility. The honest framing is that the offence was minor, the offender has addressed it, and the disproportion between a three-month minimum disqualification and the offender's circumstances is itself a matter under s 10(3)(d).

5.3Commencement, surrender and the offence of driving while disqualified

Disqualification runs from the date of the order unless the court specifies otherwise. The licence is surrendered to the court or to Service NSW. Driving during the period is an offence under s 54 of the Act [review] carrying a maximum of imprisonment and a further, longer disqualification, and it is treated by courts as a deliberate defiance of a court order rather than as a traffic matter. The advice to the client is unconditional.

5.4No hardship or work licence

NSW abolished the general "work licence" mechanism decades ago and has not reintroduced it for s 111 [review]. Clients who have read interstate material, particularly from Queensland or Western Australia, frequently arrive expecting one, and the practitioner should correct that expectation before the client builds a case on it. The hardship the client would have relied on for a work licence is instead deployed in the s 10 submissions and, if a conviction is recorded, in the submission to reduce the disqualification to the minimum.

5.5Demerit points and interlock

A court-imposed disqualification operates independently of the demerit point scheme; the points, if any, are recorded but the licence loss flows from the disqualification order. [review: whether demerit points attach to a s 111 conviction] The mandatory alcohol interlock program does not apply to a s 111 presence offence [review: confirm interlock applies only to s 110 tiers and s 112, not s 111]; an interlock order is a discrete regime and the client should be told which section it attaches to if anyone mentions it.