A learner driver with 51 points on her licence is still legally allowed behind the wheel of a car, according to official figures.

The motorist, from Oxford, speeded three times in 30mph zones and failed to provide her driver’s details on seven occasions, according to information supplied by the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).

However a court “exercised its discretion” and did not ban her from driving despite her large number of points, The Daily Telegraph reported.

A motorist from Liverpool and another from Basildon, Essex, were in joint second place on a list of drivers with the most points on their licences with each having accrued 42 points.

The Basildon driver’s offences included driving at 109mph. Their lawyer said in court that the motorist would suffer “extreme hardship” because of lost income if they lost their licence.

Normally drivers are disqualified if they get 12 points or more within a three-year period.

However the figures showed 7,517 people were still allowed on the road despite have 12 or more in October last year, up by nine per cent on the figure seven months earlier.

A spokesman for the DVLA said: “In the majority of these cases, magistrates may have decided to allow drivers to retain their entitlement to drive where it is considered that disqualification would cause exceptional hardship.

“However, the vast majority of drivers who get 12 penalty points are automatically disqualified.”

Sarah Sillars, IAM’s chief executive, said drivers could start to see the law as “ineffective or unimportant” if people with too many points were not disqualified.