Khan Din says he needs to drive or he will lose his job. (CBC)

CBC News cameras caught a handful of men driving minutes after having their licences suspended — just a few examples of the vast number of people who continue to take to the road despite being barred from doing so, says a traffic safety group.

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation said there were almost 266,698 suspended drivers in the province in 2008. Mothers Against Drunk Driving estimates 75 per cent of those people continued to drive.

CBC News went to a courtroom in east Toronto last week and quickly encountered people who brazenly flouted their recent suspensions.

"The first four trials we sat through where people were convicted and [whose licences were] suspended — every one of those four drivers went back out into the parking lot and actually drove away," said the CBC's John Lancaster.

Khan Din had his driver's licence suspended on Friday after being convicted of violating another driving suspension. But he got into his truck in the parking lot of the court at Markham Road and Sheppard Avenue East and drove off on Highway 401.

When he finished his journey and parked his car, a CBC News crew confronted him.

"I have to drive to work every day. Otherwise, I will lose my job," he said.

When asked how he could drive with a suspended licence, he replied: "You have to drive safely, that's all."

A familiar sight

"It was a scene that played out again and again," Lancaster said.

Hassan Farouk drove away in this van minutes after telling a judge he didn't have a driver's licence. (CBC)

Andrew Roxburgh has 34 driving convictions, including nine different suspensions. His licence was supended again on Wednesday, but he went straight from the court to his van.

Kandiah Krishnapille was given a $1,300 fine and a six-month driving suspension on Thursday. He got behind the wheel of his car in the parking lot of the court.

A CBC News crew confronted him and asked him why he was driving with the suspended licence. Krishnapille maintained he was only fined and was not served with a licence suspension.

Hassan Farouk, meanwhile, told court he didn't have a licence anymore, but he drove off in a van minutes later.

"We refer to suspended drivers as your high-risk road offenders because they really put undue risk on all of us," said Sgt. Tim Burrows of the Toronto Police Service.

"It's a situation that we really do have to protect society from these people."

Brian Patterson, the president of traffic safety group the Ontario Safety League, said the province's laws do not hold suspended drivers accountable for their actions.

"I think it's time to have it looked at [again] by the attorney general," he said. "We have to put teeth back into that regulation because frankly, it's a privilege to drive, and we allow people to [abuse] that privilege, and we simply don't make them accountable."

The safety league has suggested that repeat offenders be put on probation or even given jail time.

"Clearly, the number of fatalities that involve suspended drivers tells us that people are dying," Patterson said.

Some police forces in the province have allocated special resources to enforce suspensions. Police in York Region have a specialized unit that deals solely with suspended drivers — officers watch people as they come out of court to make sure they don't get back behind the wheel.

Burrows, meanwhile, said that it's important to enforce the rules, but there's only so much police can do given the current laws.

"Outside of putting an ankle bracelet monitoring system on these people that in some cases haven't committed a criminal offence — that's the only way we can truly track them when they don't care about laws and the judicial process."

With files from John Lancaster