Thousands of teenagers have lost driving licenses after exceeding six penalty points

THOUSANDS of teenagers had their driving licences revoked in the past five years after receiving at least six penalty points, new figures show.

DVLA data issued in response to a Freedom of Information request by Co-op Insurance revealed that 2,105 current provisional licence-holders aged 17-19 had fallen foul of the six-point rule between November 2011 and November 2016.

A total of 5,853 motorists aged up to 25 lost their licences over the period.

The figures only relate to motorists who had a full licence revoked after clocking up at least six points within two years of passing their tests and have since received a provisional licence. They have to retake both theory and practical tests to get back a full licence.

The most common age for a young driver to have their licence revoked was 19, with 1,162 cases.

Drivers can be given six points for offences such as being caught speeding twice or one incident of driving an uninsured vehicle.

Steve Kerrigan, head of telematics at Co-op Insurance, said: “Young drivers really need to think about their driving behaviours when they sit behind the wheel, and make both theirs and other road users’ safety a priority.

“Whilst the majority of young drivers are safe on the roads, nearly 6,000 young people have lost their licences due to the points rule since 2011 and this number needs to reduce.

“We can all make mistakes, especially in the earlier stages of our driving journey, however the sooner drivers make steps to drive as safely as they can, the less chance they will have of ever being in trouble with the law when it comes to their road use.”