Driving a Vehicle by Holding a Licence Not Appropriate to the Category to Which the Vehicle Belongs by a Person With a Suspended Driving Licence. Legal Classification. Appeal Within Time Limit.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the interpretation and application of the law by the courts in a case that has raised both substantive criminal law and criminal procedure issues. Thus, it is of interest to know the legal classification that must be assigned to the act of a person who commits several forms of the same offence, provided for in the same criminal law. In the present case, the discussion refers to S. 335 (12) of the Criminal Code: Driving, on public roads, a vehicle for which a driving license is required by law, by an individual who owns a driving license which was issued for a different category or subcategory than the one in which the vehicle is included, or whose license has been suspended, withdrawn or rescinded or who is not entitled to drive vehicles in Romania shall be punishable by no less than 6 months and no more than 3 years of imprisonment or by a fine. From a procedural point of view, it is also of interest to analyse the time from which the appeal period starts to run and the defendant's compliance with this period in the context of the fact that the appeal was lodged after the enforcement of the first instance judgment.