Not insured for commuting mismatch and odd behaviour??
Discussion
I was on the way to work the other day and was pulled over by a police car. Apparently I was riding erratically. I was filtering at around 10mph beside standstill traffic.
Officer does the usual spiel, is this your bike? Is it in good working order? Is it legal? Everything is in order as far as I'm concerned.
Other copper looks up as says " It's a 66 plate, we won't find anything."
Lead copper says "Keep looking we'll find something."
Bit confused now seems like they are looking for something?
Cop #1: Where are you going?
Me: Work
Cop: Where do you work?
Me: Gives him location of site I am off to today (I'm a contractor / have no fixed place of work and choose my own hours)
Cop: What do you do and who do you work for?
Me: Why?
Cop: Just answer the question.
Me: I don't see how it's relevant.
Cop: Are you insured?
Me: Yes, fully and gps tracked. I wasn't and haven't been speeding. I can show you the gps logs.
Cop: Have you got your insurance certificate? If you don't I want to see it tonight.
Me: Yes, I have it on my phone.
Cop: (looks at his hand held thing): My computer says social and domestic use. No commuting.
Me: I definitely have commuting, it was only £20 more. (Shows cop insurance cert on phone, which shows SDP and commuting).
Cop: My computer says you don't have commuting. If you don't have it we'll take your bike and crush it and you'll be charged with riding with no insurance.
Me: All I have is this certificate as I get my documents via email.
So after this he makes me give the key to the other copper, who goes about testing the whole bike, checks every inch of the tyres, takes the seat off, checks my tool kit, all the bike. Whilst this is happening, he makes me call the insurance company, who are not open, so he can speak to them as I may have falsified my documents??
I was there for 30 min until he decided that they weren't going to answer until 9am (another 30 min).
Now I can understand this if I was a "yoof" on a scooter or heap of a commuter, but this is a new Ducati Monster, clean and shiny and I produced everything they asked for, but they seemed intent on trying to find something.
He left saying that they would come back to my house that evening and take the bike if it was found that I was not insured for commuting.
Can they do that? Theoretically as I have no set place of work or set hours, I could have decided I was not commuting anymore and gone shopping.
I am very bemused at their behaviour.
Officer does the usual spiel, is this your bike? Is it in good working order? Is it legal? Everything is in order as far as I'm concerned.
Other copper looks up as says " It's a 66 plate, we won't find anything."
Lead copper says "Keep looking we'll find something."
Bit confused now seems like they are looking for something?
Cop #1: Where are you going?
Me: Work
Cop: Where do you work?
Me: Gives him location of site I am off to today (I'm a contractor / have no fixed place of work and choose my own hours)
Cop: What do you do and who do you work for?
Me: Why?
Cop: Just answer the question.
Me: I don't see how it's relevant.
Cop: Are you insured?
Me: Yes, fully and gps tracked. I wasn't and haven't been speeding. I can show you the gps logs.
Cop: Have you got your insurance certificate? If you don't I want to see it tonight.
Me: Yes, I have it on my phone.
Cop: (looks at his hand held thing): My computer says social and domestic use. No commuting.
Me: I definitely have commuting, it was only £20 more. (Shows cop insurance cert on phone, which shows SDP and commuting).
Cop: My computer says you don't have commuting. If you don't have it we'll take your bike and crush it and you'll be charged with riding with no insurance.
Me: All I have is this certificate as I get my documents via email.
So after this he makes me give the key to the other copper, who goes about testing the whole bike, checks every inch of the tyres, takes the seat off, checks my tool kit, all the bike. Whilst this is happening, he makes me call the insurance company, who are not open, so he can speak to them as I may have falsified my documents??
I was there for 30 min until he decided that they weren't going to answer until 9am (another 30 min).
Now I can understand this if I was a "yoof" on a scooter or heap of a commuter, but this is a new Ducati Monster, clean and shiny and I produced everything they asked for, but they seemed intent on trying to find something.
He left saying that they would come back to my house that evening and take the bike if it was found that I was not insured for commuting.
Can they do that? Theoretically as I have no set place of work or set hours, I could have decided I was not commuting anymore and gone shopping.
I am very bemused at their behaviour.
codenamecueball said:
Surely if you have no set place of work or set hours you should have Class 1 business insurance? Are you self employed?
I'm a contractor that works for a company with multiple clients. Although I have one main client at the moment and I am on their site 4/5 days and have been for a year and a half now. On the advice of my insurance company, they said this was commuting. Also the other clients I take the train as they are either in London or I need the train.I was happy saying I was commuting, that's what I was doing, I was just confused why he wouldn't take my insurance certificate as genuine. I showed all the emails etc. from the company and the other documents, as they were all on my phone.
Thanks, I'll look into the insurance situation.
As I said before, it was more about why he kept me there trying to get me to phone my insurance company and carried on about crushing my bike. I've never had car or bike gone over so thoroughly, it was almost as if they were looking for something and when the bike was clean trying hard to pin something, anything on me.
I've had mixed experiences with the police, maybe 25% positive the rest negative, especially traffic officers. One tried very hard to get my brother to admit he was speeding after a car turned right into him on his bike, he had a broken collar bone, was going into shock, swaying and was about to pass out. She wouldn't le me help him and just carried on asking how fast he was going, whilst I was trying to get him to sit in the car and take him to hospital.
As I said before, it was more about why he kept me there trying to get me to phone my insurance company and carried on about crushing my bike. I've never had car or bike gone over so thoroughly, it was almost as if they were looking for something and when the bike was clean trying hard to pin something, anything on me.
I've had mixed experiences with the police, maybe 25% positive the rest negative, especially traffic officers. One tried very hard to get my brother to admit he was speeding after a car turned right into him on his bike, he had a broken collar bone, was going into shock, swaying and was about to pass out. She wouldn't le me help him and just carried on asking how fast he was going, whilst I was trying to get him to sit in the car and take him to hospital.
FlabbyMidgets said:
Any updates?
Have been away in the North for a week or so.No one turned up at my house, so I guess it was just a lot of hot air and maybe he either disliked bikes or was having a bad day. Luckily my boss was understanding when I was a little late.
Rang he insurance company and I definitely have commuting and upgraded to business use just in case.
Edited by Wildfire on Thursday 6th July 10:30
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