Smart motorways are a hot topic at the moment, with the Government deciding to suspend work on them, whilst they debate how safe they really are.

But whilst the work is suspended the constant speeding monitoring from the yellow cameras is very much still in force.

So, what happens if you look down at your speedometer and realise you are doing 60mph in a 50 zone but cannot remember how many cameras you have passed? Could you be looking at 3 points? 6 points?

This is where the principle of totality could work in your favour, the totality principle is a discretionary tool the court can use to impose the maximum number of points it can for one offence to all of them, which often in the case of speeding is 3 points (although this depends on your speed). However, a court, ‘if it thinks fit’ may impose points for each offence.

However, these offences must be committed ‘on the same occasion’ so if you drive to work and get caught by the same camera on the way there and on the way back the court is unlikely to apply this principle as the journeys will be considered to be separate journeys. Whether there are two or more offences will also be a question of fact so eyewitness testimony will be crucial to establishing this.

An example of this principle in action can be seen in a case from 1983 where failure to stop at the scene of a Road Traffic Accident and Failure to report the same accident were deemed to be offences on the same occasion.

However, a different approach has been followed in the Scottish Courts. In one case from 1996 a moving traffic offence which resulted in the driver being stopped, then a failure to provide a specimen of breath were held to be on a different occasion despite the failure to provide only coming about due to the defendant being stopped for the road traffic offence.

It is therefore important to seek advice about any impending prosecution so that a lawyer can establish whether the totality principle could help you.