The penalties for driving while prohibited depend on your number of prior convictions. If you are convicted of Driving While Prohibited, a first offence carries a mandatory minimum penalty of a $500 fine and a one-year driving prohibition.
A second conviction carries with it a mandatory minimum conviction of 14 days in jail. It doesn’t take much to go to jail for Driving While Prohibited, in fact, two convictions are all it takes.
For many people, 14 days in jail may not seem like a long time, especially because the sentence can be served on the weekends. But that is still 14 days you aren’t with your family, you aren’t able to earn money, and it’s a significant hardship for many people.
In addition, if you continue to drive while prohibited after receiving a 14-day jail sentence, although the mandatory minimum doesn’t increase beyond the 14 days, the law functions to increase the jail sentence.
In law, there is something known as the ‘step-up’ principle. If you commit an offence and face the punishment for it, and are then found guilty of the same offence again, the court will apply the step-up principle.
What this means is that the consequences you receive this time will be a step up from the consequences you received the first time.
The result is, that many people who have lengthy records for Driving While Prohibited, will end up serving jail sentences of several months.
The maximum jail sentence is 6 months in jail for a person who has committed a driving while prohibited offence.
Unlike Criminal Code offences, the consequences can include a combination of fines and jail time, and the maximum fine is $2000.
Beyond this, you can also be put on periods of probation where you are required, upon your release from jail, to comply with conditions.
There is no limit on how long you can be prohibited from driving under the MVA.
When you start to consider these things, the economic loss you would suffer for subsequent Driving While Prohibited convictions are significant.
Jail on a Driving While Prohibited conviction cannot be served as house arrest.
These are real jail sentences, meaning you must go to a provincial institution to serve your sentence there, but they can, however, be served intermittently. This means that you can serve any jail sentence up to 90 days as an intermitted sentence, which would allow you to continue to work.
The court will come up with a schedule of when you have to show up to the jail, and when you are to be released, which can be adjusted to fit your needs.
The intermittent sentences do have their own complications, for the period of time when you’re not in jail, you will be on probation, and it will be very strict. You will also need to report at the times that you are required to do so, and if you report late or fail to show up, you will be considered unlawfully at large.
A breach of that order attracts a serious consequence and can convert your sentence back into regular jail time. On top of that, getting a criminal charge for being unlawfully at large also attracts a very serious sentence.