No Insurance - Unkowingly
Discussion
Morning All, Got pulled by BiB yesterday, doing nothing wrong (that I knew of) tootling along in the old Diesel Discovery, kids in with me, no problems or so I thought. He had done a PNC check on my c ar and it had come back uninsured, I told him I was definitely insured with Direct Line so he gave me a producer.
Got home, cannot find my certificate for this year anywhere, rang Direct Line and i'm not covered. I am SURE I got a letter from them to say this is your renewal, if you wish to renew you need take no further action. They say it will have asked me to contact them.
Top and bottom of it is I have been driving without insurance since Jan but completely unwittingly - I have NEVER driven without insurance - will I be treated the same as people who have comtempt for the law and insurance system, or will the court view my case as it is, a genuine administrative cock up? Is there any difference in the eyes of the law and what can I expect to recieve in way of points as I am sailing close to the wind at the moment as it is.
Thanks all in anticipation.
Got home, cannot find my certificate for this year anywhere, rang Direct Line and i'm not covered. I am SURE I got a letter from them to say this is your renewal, if you wish to renew you need take no further action. They say it will have asked me to contact them.
Top and bottom of it is I have been driving without insurance since Jan but completely unwittingly - I have NEVER driven without insurance - will I be treated the same as people who have comtempt for the law and insurance system, or will the court view my case as it is, a genuine administrative cock up? Is there any difference in the eyes of the law and what can I expect to recieve in way of points as I am sailing close to the wind at the moment as it is.
Thanks all in anticipation.
You need to distance yourself from those who habitually have no insurance.
Ring direct line and ask for copies of previous insurance or a letter to say NCB or how long you've been continuously insured with them.
It may fall on deaf ears at the police station but at least it shows you aint a lowlife and someone might take pity on you.
Ring direct line and ask for copies of previous insurance or a letter to say NCB or how long you've been continuously insured with them.
It may fall on deaf ears at the police station but at least it shows you aint a lowlife and someone might take pity on you.
You are lucky to still have your car. They took my friends away, and she was unknowingly out of cover by just 4 days! The Police left her 10 miles from home at an out of town shopping centre! http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.
Similar circumtances to yours too, in that she thought she was OK, but clearly in your case the police weren't chasing an arbitrary "confiscation" target for the day. It'll still be six points and a fine though.
Andy
Similar circumtances to yours too, in that she thought she was OK, but clearly in your case the police weren't chasing an arbitrary "confiscation" target for the day. It'll still be six points and a fine though.
Andy
Unknowing is not defence to a charge No Insurance.
The only thing you can try is to place before the Magistrates as mitigation the facts that you outline above and some evidence of a continued period Insured.
Its a max £5000 fine and 6 - 8 points discretionary disqualification. They may take pity and award less than the max. Check of local paper should reveal what they are dishing out.
As other have said your lucky the vehicle was not impounded.
dvd
The only thing you can try is to place before the Magistrates as mitigation the facts that you outline above and some evidence of a continued period Insured.
Its a max £5000 fine and 6 - 8 points discretionary disqualification. They may take pity and award less than the max. Check of local paper should reveal what they are dishing out.
As other have said your lucky the vehicle was not impounded.
dvd
Thanks everyone, Looks like I was lucky not to have vehicle taken off me - story in our local rag tonight, David Nugent (of england footy tap in fame) caught driving his mates car, didnt realise uninsured and had car taken off him there and then.
Usual in the side columns of the paper is 6 points, fine anything from £75 to £200 (making it seem like a good deal for your usual uninsured person)
If they give me 6 points I will be at 12 under totting up - its at that point I use mitigation I suppose it is?
Usual in the side columns of the paper is 6 points, fine anything from £75 to £200 (making it seem like a good deal for your usual uninsured person)
If they give me 6 points I will be at 12 under totting up - its at that point I use mitigation I suppose it is?
bigbazza said:
Thanks everyone, Looks like I was lucky not to have vehicle taken off me - story in our local rag tonight, David Nugent (of england footy tap in fame) caught driving his mates car, didnt realise uninsured and had car taken off him there and then.
Usual in the side columns of the paper is 6 points, fine anything from £75 to £200 (making it seem like a good deal for your usual uninsured person)
If they give me 6 points I will be at 12 under totting up - its at that point I use mitigation I suppose it is?
Usual in the side columns of the paper is 6 points, fine anything from £75 to £200 (making it seem like a good deal for your usual uninsured person)
If they give me 6 points I will be at 12 under totting up - its at that point I use mitigation I suppose it is?
You could try throwing yourself on the 'mercy' of the officer who stopped you and issued the HORT/1, show them all your previous insurance etc and hope a bit of grovelling may stop it going to court. It may work (if it was me and I thought you were genuine I would consider a verbal warning and be satisfied once I saw an up to date certifcate) altough thats a purely individual decision as the the officer if challenged would have to justify not dealing with the x months un-insured driving.
The reason you were not subject to siezure would have been due to the time you were stopped I would have thought or the fact the officer may have believed your insistance that you had insurance. Whereas the other poster mentioned one stopped whoknew she had forgot to renew, was stopped by an ANPR unit (who cannot take one car but not another) and was in a public place during daytime with means of contacting people (not quite the horror story mentioned).
You may be able to still avoid court.
I have every sympathy here. A few years ago I was insured with the AA, who each year would automatically renew my insurance if I did not contact them to cancel. They'd just send a new quote, and a few weeks later you'd get your insurance certificate.
It wasn't until I double checked one year that I realised my insurance had expired about 3 months previously, as the AA had changed their renewal policy to 'cancellation without notification'. My fault as I skim-read the letter. I got on the phone immediately and renewed it.
It can happen easily, it happened as I was on a very large job, I was busy driving all over the country.
It wasn't until I double checked one year that I realised my insurance had expired about 3 months previously, as the AA had changed their renewal policy to 'cancellation without notification'. My fault as I skim-read the letter. I got on the phone immediately and renewed it.
It can happen easily, it happened as I was on a very large job, I was busy driving all over the country.
bigbazza said:
Looks like I was lucky not to have vehicle taken off me.
You were lucky you did'nt have it stolen.
You were lucky you did'nt have an accident, with a personal injury claim against you, you would have lost everything, including your house, unless you have a few hundred grand handy.
negative creep said:
Have you checked your bank statements? If the insurance company has been taking payments it will show up. Although if they haven't it does beg the quesiton of why you didn't notice they weren't taking any money out?
My Insurance is paid on the company credit card which I don't personally see the statements for.
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
I s'pose to put a positive spin on it...lucky you were stopped. The full force of the law is nothing compared to (god forbid) a serious unisured accident.
Exactly what I have been thinking since I got stopped, I have done a good few miles with all my family on board in that time - the consequences of that leave me cold!
Thanks all for the advice, I am currently pursuing Direct Line as I believe I had auto renewal on my policy - if not, I will just have to take what comes and plead mitigation.
Edited by bigbazza on Tuesday 3rd April 10:56
I'm slightly surprised as I'm with DL and a couple of years ago they moved to automatic renewal - I'd have assumed everyone will be the same. However, if it's paid by credit card, maybe the card on their system will have expired and they couldn't do that this time? I'm on monthly DD so they can just roll over the DD payment at the new rate.
Something similar happened to me a few years ago. Went to court and proved as much as possible it was a genuine mistake on MY part in believing I was insured. They took pity and gave me 4 points instead of 6 and a £200 fine which in the circumstances I think was very fair. I always make sure I'm insured now.
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