Help!! Unfortunate Drink Driving Conviction!!

benz52

Hi guys,

All is said in the title. A guy goes over to his friend's place to drink, parking his car off street with the intention to leave there until the next morning. He drinks good and when he is about to call a taxi, remembers that the key to his house is in his car. Reaches for the glove compartment and you've guessed it, a police tapping on the shoulder. That's it. 'You're being nicked for being in possession of a motor vechile whilst having consumed excess alcohol'.

I knew that one could be convicted of driving a vechile while being over the limit, but this one came as a surprise to me. May be people are aware of it, maybe I was ignorant, but the next step is now the insurance. My car was worth 30k when i bought it 3 years back and I paid 2600. Now i'd value it at around 18k and I'm being quoted just over that figure because of this conviction. Just so you know, my wife has been driving it for my long ban period)

Just wondering if there are any companies who will do a good price if you agreed on a clause like the insurance will be void in case the driver is drunk? Are there any companies which will do this? I've personally never done that anyway and will always keep away from drink driving. Infact, I've stopped many people from doing it myself.

All help will be appreciated.

Thank you,
Tushar

benz52

Help anyone??

jimclark1967

benz52 wrote:

Help anyone??

I'd love to know where you can buy a car for £2,600 that's worth £18,000 three years down the line

I'm not sure about the insurance question, you can't have a policy which is void in some circumstances as there's a legal requirement to have insurance...

Something doesn't quite stack up about the scenario you describe. How would the police not have seen that it was just the keys being picked up? Surely you're allowed to collect your own property while under the influence...



JC

Gingham_Ribbon

How did you get into the car if your keys were already inside it?

I've never heard of a clause like you suggest but surely you have evidence that you didn't even have the keys in the ignition to go in your favour?

Astaroth

Many "normal" insurers have a clause to exclude claims when the person in possesssion of the vehicle is under the influence anyway.

You could use the likes of confused.com or such... having done a quick quote using somewhat guessed figures with a DR40 conviction and the prices coming out were under £1k so certainly a lot better than the £18k you say you are getting

I would also agree with others that it seems a bit strange... certainly you can be charged with being in charge of a motor vehicle with excess alcohol (DR40) but it does seem very harsh given your story. There isnt an auto ban for DR40 but the court can do so at their discretion. The norm is a 10 point endorsement on your licence so unless you have had previous convitions and fell foul of the "totting up" rule it doesnt really ring true

mrcow

benz52 wrote:

Just wondering if there are any companies who will do a good price if you agreed on a clause like the insurance will be void in case the driver is drunk?

All policies are void if you are drunk! (Any injured parties or properties that you damage can claim against your insurance company, but you'd have to pay for any damage to your own car).

BTW your story stinks of bs!

dunstonh

If the offence is "being in charge", it is a defence if you can show that there was no liklihood of you driving while you were over the limit. Your scenario would be easy to give that defence as the friend would be aware you were going to get the keys from the car (although how did you get in the car in the first place) and the friend would also be aware that you were returning to use the phone to ring a taxi (although wouldnt you have rung the taxi first).

The police are pretty experienced of knowing how long to wait and when to approach someone in this scenario. i.e. wait until they are in the drivers seat, doors closed and keys in ignition. Entering the passenger side wouldnt cause the police to come running over at that point.

derrick

benz52 wrote:

parking his car off street
Tushar

If the car was "off street" why was the arrest made? you can DRIVE your car on private property drunk or not.

gazza975526570

mrcow wrote:

All policies are void if you are drunk! (Any injured parties or properties that you damage can claim against your insurance company, but you'd have to pay for any damage to your own car).

BTW your story stinks of bs!

Im afraid this statement inst true. Although my own personal view is that they should be.

You can still claim for damage to your own vehicle, and any subsequent damage to third party's, injured persons. Its likely though that you wouldnt be offered a renewal.

Well thats the situ where i work.

mrcow

gazza975526570 wrote:

You can still claim for damage to your own vehicle, and any subsequent damage to third party's, injured persons. Its likely though that you wouldnt be offered a renewal.

That's interesting as we were in this position back in Feb (my brother was hit by a speeding drunk driver) and the police informed us that his policy would be voided for his car, although our insurance company were able to submit a claim to his (although we're still waiting for it to be settled through :rolleyes: ).

I didn't have any reason to query what they'd said, as it made sense to me. Kind of seems weird that they'd pay for any damage that you'd criminally caused to yourself?

On my insurance policy (Privilige) it says that they'll void the policy if you fail to drive under the conditions of your license (I gues they don't consider not being under the influence of drink/drugs one of those condidtions?)

The OPs story still doesn't make any sense to me :rolleyes:

gazza975526570

It was a while ago i worked within claims and my memory may be lacking some info.
- i believe your right in that one of your license conditions wont be you cant drive drunk.
- I believe there was an IOB ruling and it was something along the lines of "as when the accident happened you hadnt already been CONVICTED of drink driving then the ins company is unable to enforce it"
One of the more claims people should be able to give specifics.
Our insurance company tried to challenge it with failing to maintain your vehicle but we were unable to win on that occasion.

The problem is with police in incidents that they at times give their opinions and opinions are all they are therefore if they tell you something it may not necessarily be true from an insurance POV