A mum whose son was killed by a drink driver have criticised “unfair” sentences, after research revealed more than 60 convicted drink drivers in West Yorkshire avoided driving bans.

Of those convicted of drink-driving last year, 65 were not disqualified from driving by the courts, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request from insurance company LV showed.

In the UK as a whole, 55,539 people were convicted of drink-driving last year, with 1,480 of them escaping driving bans, according to the research published yesterday.

Brighouse-based safety campaigner Carole Whittingham, whose son, Steven, was killed in 1992 by a teenage driver high on drink and drugs, said drink driving should mean automatic disqualification. Mrs Whittingham said: “The penalty of disqualification is there and most do get banned but the fact there is a small percentage who do not shows this is not fair.”

Mrs Whittingham, national spokesman for the Campaign Against Drinking and Driving (CADD), said she knew of a drink driver who had escaped a ban because they were a “pillar of the community”.

She said: “An automatic ban should be imposed on anyone who is over the limit.”