Help - Driving Without Insurance

A123JACK

My wife was stopped in my car and the car was found to be uninsured. I have checked the policy and it ended 5/11/06. Being an idiot when I got the renewal I thought the policy would continue on the existing direct debit I had set up- all my fault for not checking the policy and covering letter in greater detail. On checking it states I had to ring them to agree. Excuses I know but on former insurance policies I have had they keep the policy running unless you notify them to cancel.

The problem is now my wife has been asked to produce documents to local police in seven days. I have rang my insurance company and the car is now insured. I sorted everything with the insurance company within two hours of my wife being stopped.

Any advice on how best to deal with the police and what sort of punishment will me/wife get.

Just to add the car is registered in my name with the wife as a named driver. It is taxed and has a valid MOT.

Thanks

i_love_it

!!!!. was your renewal notice in letter format, with a reply envelope etc. Could you say you sent it back? Or did they require phonecall for actual payment. What did yo say during the renewal? If nothing undoing, then you could say you posted renewal acceptance.... its a long shot

stooby

if your wife has a car insurance of her own covering a different vehicle, that policy would usually cover her Third Party Only on "any car not belonging to her" i.e. yours. That would mean she was legal. It's a longshot though.

A123JACK

Thanks for your response

It stated in the letter which I have now read (better late than never!!):

"You need to call us prior to your policy expiry to ensure your cover continues without interruption"

I never did this - would my best bet to admit my mistake??

A123JACK

stooby wrote:

if your wife has a car insurance of her own covering a different vehicle, that policy would usually cover her Third Party Only on "any car not belonging to her" i.e. yours. That would mean she was legal. It's a longshot though.

Thanks for that - my wife does not have any other insurance and is not insured on any other vehicle. I am insured on my employers policy for a works van.

i_love_it

right, you need someone to come along with actual legal advice. Driving without insurance is pretty serious. A friend of mine got 6 points and 320 pound fine for this last june. It went to court for the sanction, but, she was driving whilst disqualified. thing is, the lack of insurance came out as the bigger crime believe it or not and is endorsed on her licence.

Have you got any legal helpline, ie through work or home insurance or anything like that. There could be a way out, or at least a loophole to get the smallest penalty.....

june1970_2

a friend of mine got a 9 months ban a fine but i can not remember how much it was.

A123JACK

i_love_it wrote:

right, you need someone to come along with actual legal advice. Driving without insurance is pretty serious. A friend of mine got 6 points and 320 pound fine for this last june. It went to court for the sanction, but, she was driving whilst disqualified. thing is, the lack of insurance came out as the bigger crime believe it or not and is endorsed on her licence.

Have you got any legal helpline, ie through work or home insurance or anything like that. There could be a way out, or at least a loophole to get the smallest penalty.....

Will check through my insurance documents to see I have legal cover / helpline.

Thanks for your help.

i_love_it

As the incident did not invole reason for claim, could they back date your insurance, if you pay the premium, could you aportion some blame to them for mis comunication, have you tried? again, a long shot and i'm not informed enough. i'd try everything....... but good luck

Astaroth

Insurers will almost never back date insurance unless they themselves have messed up big time. All retrospective loadings to the national databases results in lots of questions being asked of the insurer on why it is being done. In all my time in insurance I have only once authorised it to be done and that was where we had the 2 calls from the customer recorded where they were told it was going to auto-renew and they didnt need to do anything when this wasnt the case.

To the OP..... driving without insurance is 6-8 points with discretionary ban for an IN10 offence plus a fine of up to £5000. I think it would be unlikely that they also prosecute you but if they did it would be an IN12 which is causing or permitting someone to drive without insurance.

Unfortunately a defence of "I didnt realise" generally wont wash as technically as the driver you are expected to ensure that you are insured and not just take someones word for it.

A123JACK

Astaroth wrote:

Insurers will almost never back date insurance unless they themselves have messed up big time. All retrospective loadings to the national databases results in lots of questions being asked of the insurer on why it is being done. In all my time in insurance I have only once authorised it to be done and that was where we had the 2 calls from the customer recorded where they were told it was going to auto-renew and they didnt need to do anything when this wasnt the case.

To the OP..... driving without insurance is 6-8 points with discretionary ban for an IN10 offence plus a fine of up to £5000. I think it would be unlikely that they also prosecute you but if they did it would be an IN12 which is causing or permitting someone to drive without insurance.

Unfortunately a defence of "I didnt realise" generally wont wash as technically as the driver you are expected to ensure that you are insured and not just take someones word for it.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond. I was just wondering do the police have the option of dealing with this type of offence with a fixed penalty notice or is it always court. Since realising my stupid mistake I insured the car within 2 hours of my wife getting stopped. Will this give me any chance of a lesser penalty (doubt it!!).