When banned for offences such as drink-driving last year, only 13 per cent of people posted in their licence

More than 85 per cent of disqualified drivers failed to surrender their licences last year.

In 2018, 8,826 drivers were banned by judges and 1,414 were banned because of penalty points, figures from the Department of Transport show. Of the 10,240 cases, licences were surrendered in only 1,417, or 13 per cent. The offence is punishable by a fine of up to €5,000 or up to six months in prison.

In 2017 there were 10,271 driving bans and licences were given up in 18 per cent of cases. Disqualified drivers are usually required to hand over their licence on the day of a court hearing, otherwise they have between five and ten days to post it.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said that