Car impounded for no insurance, was told by insurance company that we were insured

xxkitcatsxx

forgotmyname wrote: »

Make an official complaint. Did they not contact the insurance company direct?

Any reason for that? I would be livid having taken out insurance just before then obviously it wont be on the system. Some can take weeks to put it on there.
My dads business policy is never on there for some off reason.

How can a policeman suspend a licence? Courts are there for that.

Sounds like there is more to this than whether it shows on the database.

They seem to think he doesnt have a valid licence which has already been suspended by the DVLA or a court. Then no he wont be insured.
So points and a fine are on the way.

Has his licence been revoked or suspended? Is it a UK licence?

Policies are now being issued with clauses about cars from pounds and insuring to drive cars that are not currently insured by the owner or keeper.

We are in the process of trying to get through to our lawyer who used to work with the police so knows exactly who's knuckles need wrapping over this.

He begged nearly in tears for the policeman to calm the insurance company but at that point he didn't believe who he was until his gran who was in the car told him the same details. As they believed and possibly still believe, that he is an alias for this bloke we have probably never been within 50 miles of!

He has a valid licence, no points, only ever had 1 speeding ticket in 7 years of driving and it is/was a clean, valid UK licence. The insurance was valid until the policeman suspended his licence there and then. Hoping that was cos of the mix up with this criminal and not due to the insurance mix up.

Anyone know if this will be quashed? Or will he end up in court do you think? If that happens do you think common sense will prevail and he'll end up with no fine or points due to him having proof he had insurance at the time?

Hes never had any run ins with the police and is a hard working honest man and father of 2. A complaint is going through the insurance company now but I'm not holding out much hope of getting the impound fees back from them. Need to get hold of our solicitor as far as a complaint with the police is concerned to see where we stand on that.

xxkitcatsxx

It wasn't suspended before all this or he wouldn't have been insured for his other car either. We now have 2 cars, 1 his brother is buying tomorrow off us and the other is in the impound lot! Neither of which he can drive now as theyv suspended his licence!

He has lost last nights shift and todays 14 hour shift and he has to rely on my dad to take him the 30 miles to work and the same to pick him up tomorrow when he does another 12-14 hour shift. Major inconvenience for all involved especially his workplace as they had him covering for someone in a different place than he normally works this week as they know he's the best person to send!

Sgt_Pepper_2

forgotmyname wrote: »

I think the issue is his licence has been suspended previously hence no need to phone the insurance as no licence would mean he wasnt insured either.

Seen the policy have you?

What about the holds, has held and not disqualified clause?

xxkitcatsxx

One more point. I've read that if you are asked to produce documents and don't produce within 7 days the cps can prosecute. Is this still the case if they didn't ask him to produce. He told the officer he could call the insurance company and ask them to email a copy but he didn't seem to care and took the car.

Sgt_Pepper_2

TrickyWicky wrote: »

I've never heard of a licence being suspended there and then but the cop refusing to ring the insurers is definitely suitable for a complaint to not only the police force but also the IPCC.

Get a solicitor, find the best you can who does criminal defence and when he's taken to the station for questioning ask for that solicitor. If you get a decent enough solicitor often the name of that person will make the police think twice (A tip given to me by a friend years ago when I had a brush with the law - I was told the very mention of his name makes the police get nervous )

Please, unlike others, keep us updated of the outcome

What will the IPCC do?

Leave it to his force to investigate.

The op needs to explain the licence issue before a complaint is made.

xxkitcatsxx

The only issue with his licence is that thanks to that uncooperative policeman its now suspended possibly because they believe he's this other guy who was born and bred in a different country who's wanted for driving offences!

mikey72

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

What will the IPCC do?

Leave it to his force to investigate.

The op needs to explain the licence issue before a complaint is made.

Investigate it properly, and not suddenly find everything in the force is fine?

http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/en/Pages/your_complaint_.aspx

Get the complaint in asap.

The op needs to explain nothing.

forgotmyname

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

Seen the policy have you?

What about the holds, has held and not disqualified clause?

But the issue is not with the insurance policy or company saying he is not insured. Its the police saying he is not insured.

Possibly due to having his licence suspended? Only they and the driver will know that exactly.
Either the policeman got it badly wrong and will have his knuckles rapped or there is some good reason he thought the driver didnt have a licence?

As the OP said complaining to the insurer, I dont think that will really help. They have done nothing wrong. They insured the car/driver. Not showing on the database but i wouldnt expect it to so soon after taking it out.

Obviously a reason why they didnt bother checking the insurance.
The bit about another driver and suspended licence seems to backup my theory.

The OP keeps saying the police suspended his licence, Which that cannot do at the side of the road.

So some information seems to be crossed or missing somewhere.

bris

Non of this makes sense, are you sure the car hasn't been nicked by a bogus cop and a tow away truck? The police can't suspend a licence at the road side and they wouldn't refuse to call the insurer, it's done routinely when a driver insists they are insured. The police aren't within their rights to seize a vehicle because the MID hasn't been updated, that's why they have to call the insurer to check.

dacouch

Could e that if the police think he is someone else and he produced a driving licence, they confiscated the licence thinking it was fake etc as they seem to think the OP's partner is actually someone else.