Penalty Points

trigger1812

Hi there, the lad was stopped by the police randomly there was no reason inparticular, his father is off to pay his fine today as he feels it is totally his fault due to not reading the insurance renewel properly and feels he is totally to blame, on the point of my nephew, he does have pretty bad learning difficulties but in all fairness holds down a job in which most of us would'nt touch. I personally think a valuable lesson should be learned with regard to insurance renewels not being an automatically rolling thing, although this has never happened to me personally. I do however feel he has been treated harshly he has always been insured taxed etc thanks to his supportive parents but on this occasion a silly mistake turned into a massive one.

robredz

pendulum wrote: »

Did you check with the insurance company and all paperwork to make absolutely sure he wasn't uninsured at the time.

On one of my old policies I had a 7 day grace period. Say my policy started on the 4th October 2009 and expired at 29.59 on 4th October 2010 (just an example date), well the small print in the policy documents actually stated that I had a grace period of 7 days after the expiry date whereby the minimum amount of insurance by law will be granted (Thirt Party Only). I presume some insurance companys do this to save customers from committing an offence of no insurance where a renewal payment has been delayed in the post or where a customer is a few days late sorting out the renewal. It also gives the insurance company extra time to ring up and say hey, do you know your insurance has now run out by x days, do you want to renew it?

Check because you never know.

The grace period has been abolished to help ANPR cameras to catch uninsured motorists since 2005, as how could the database work if grace periods of various duration existed?:

"Recent regulation has meant that insurers now have to comply with the requirements of the Motor Insurance Database (MID) and as such the grace period has been cancelled"

quoted from:

http://www.biba.org.uk/MediaCenterContentDetails.aspx?ContentID=525

Even though it is a strict liability offence, it seems a bit harsh under the specific circumstances.

WTTM

trigger1812 wrote: »

Hi there, the lad was stopped by the police randomly there was no reason inparticular, his father is off to pay his fine today as he feels it is totally his fault due to not reading the insurance renewel properly and feels he is totally to blame, on the point of my nephew, he does have pretty bad learning difficulties but in all fairness holds down a job in which most of us would'nt touch. I personally think a valuable lesson should be learned with regard to insurance renewels not being an automatically rolling thing, although this has never happened to me personally. I do however feel he has been treated harshly he has always been insured taxed etc thanks to his supportive parents but on this occasion a silly mistake turned into a massive one.

No lessons required - the renewal notice would have stated clearly if it was or wasn't auto renewal.

He got what he deserved as would anyone.

I hope he doesn't have difficulty learning from his mistake.


MOMENT

vaio

There never has been an official grace period for insurance as far as the police are concerned.

What pendulum is referring to is a grace period provided by the insurer, during which they continue to provide RTA cover and obviously this will show on the MID

rev_henry

vaio wrote: »

At the risk of getting circular you’re not getting the idea of greater or lesser culpability……..

The child has learning difficulties and maybe can’t read, he relies on his father to look after the paperwork.

10 months is more culpable than 10 mins

Being involved in an accident adds to the culpability

It’s why we have a range of punishments for the same offence, he’s guilty of no insurance but the sentence varies depending on the culpability

When is a child an adult? I might suggest when he can ride a moped and be held personally responsible for a fine/points on his licence.

vaio

[FONT=&quot]As a parent I still regard my 25 year old graduate son as a child, maybe an adolescent. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
In the case of the OP her nephew has learning difficulties such that he relies on his dad to look after the paperwork so I’d say child is an appropriate description[/FONT]

vaio

WTTM wrote: »

No lessons required - the renewal notice would have stated clearly if it was or wasn't auto renewal.

He got what he deserved as would anyone.

I hope he doesn't have difficulty learning from his mistake.


MOMENT

You really are a knobhead sometimes

DaveF327

Morals aside and back to the OP's original question of whether an appeal is possible..

Did he plead guilty? Did he have continuous and concurrent car insurance that automatically renewed on a credit card?

The answers to the above may provide grounds for appeal against the sentence, but there is no appeal against conviction given the circumstances stated.

For those who say "ignorance is no defence", the ignorance here is not of the law, but of the terms of the policy which was originally taken out in compliance with the law.

dacouch

vaio wrote: »

There never has been an official grace period for insurance as far as the police are concerned.

What pendulum is referring to is a grace period provided by the insurer, during which they continue to provide RTA cover and obviously this will show on the MID

Days of Grace no longer exist and as such do not show on the MID

trigger1812

WTM why bother answering with something like that???? obviously you are perfect, no one is denying he did wrong in the eyes of the law but he does have learning disabilities and his mum and dad are supportive of him to keep his independance, as i have already stated the lads dad has indeed paid the fine today because he did NOT read the policy properly, so please dont comment unless its not constructive.