A prior offence vs. 2 or more prior offences

Question

I am confused about the following statement.

First it says:

a prior offence in the last 10 years, you will be disqualified from holding a driver's licence for 3 years from the date of the conviction

but then it says:

2 or more prior offences in the last 10 years, you will be disqualified from holding a driver's licence for 5 years from the date of the conviction.

Shouldn't the second part say:

3 or more prior offences in the last 10 years, you will be disqualified from holding a driver's licence for 5 years from the date of the conviction

because the first part says if you already have a prior offence and later you have a second one, then you will be disqualified from holding a driver's licence for 3 years from the date of the conviction?

Answer 1

No. The first part addresses the penalties for a second offense. The second part addresses the penalties for a third or subsequent offense.

Answer 2

The wording is from the current ongoing trial that leads to a conviction.

• Alice drives drunk. She has no prior convictions, so is not disqualified.
• Bob drives drunk. He has a conviction from last year. He is disqualified to drive for 3 years from his new conviction.
• Charly drives Drunk. He has one conviction from 5 years ago, one from 4 years ago, and just regained his license last year. Now he is convicted and disqualified for the next 5 years.
• Dorothy drives Drunk. She has a long record of drunken driving, but never without a license. She regained her license two weeks ago after having been disqualified for 5 years. That was 2 weeks ago, and now she is standing in court for drunk driving again. The last disqualification happened 5 years and 16 days after the preceding conviction and is thus 10 years and 1 month prior to the new conviction - and thus outside the 10-year window. As a strange result, she only has a single conviction inside that window and would be disqualified for only 3 years.