urgent advice on car insurance....this is getting silly

[Deleted User]

If you don't get your £150 back use Small Claims Court.

thenudeone

DELETED USER wrote:

If you don't get your £150 back use Small Claims Court.

To do what?

Just because you can later prove you were insured when you were stopped doesn't mean that the police acted unlawfully or have to pay back any statutory fees.

As long as the criteria for seizure are met, explained here:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/165A
they have no legal obligation to pay you back.

holdinfoldin

so in theory you can be stopped told you aren't insured when you are and and it's a easy £150.

ilikewatch

holdinfoldin wrote: »

so in theory you can be stopped told you aren't insured when you are and and it's a easy £150.

My understanding is that if you are stopped and are unable to immediately supply evidence that you are insured, then the police can seize your vehicle - seems fair enough to me.

holdinfoldin

so i take it you drive around with all you're documents on you, if so let's hope no one steals your car. whatever happened to the 7 day producer ? by the police's own admission the database does make mistakes.

ilikewatch

holdinfoldin wrote: »

so i take it you drive around with all you're documents on you, if so let's hope no one steals your car. whatever happened to the 7 day producer ? by the police's own admission the database does make mistakes.

The database and the "7 day producer" are AFAIK tools for the police to use at their discretion, I'm pretty sure that it is a legal requirement to carry evidence of valid insurance along with your driving licence and counterpart whenever you're in control of your vehicle?

holdinfoldin

askthepolice.com
just looked this up tells you what you need to know. so now even more annoying.

thenudeone

ilikewatch wrote: »

My understanding is that if you are stopped and are unable to immediately supply evidence that you are insured, then the police can seize your vehicle - seems fair enough to me.

More or less, but the police can only seize your vehicle if you can't provide a certificate AND the officer has reasonable grounds for believing that you are uninsured. The exact conditions are in the link I gave above.
That is a higher level than having a "reasonable suspicion" which is all that is required to make an arrest.
So the officer may have to explain why they believed (rather than merely reasonably suspected) you were uninsured. The law on seizure doesn't even mention the insurance database, and lack of an entry on a database is not, on its own, sufficient grounds to seize a vehicle, although it's a good starting point.

[Deleted User]

Someone screwed up. Either your insurer didn't add your details to the database or the police bungled the search. Either way someone owes you £150.

holdinfoldin

insurance company insist details were added ( but then i guess they would) obviously i will be trying to reclaim money but i find even more annoying is that he was only stopped 20 minutes from home, i could have driven documents there or as portrayed in tv programmes they could have driven to me or at least made a phone call to me. also the fact that you have to pay to get the car back even though you turn up at the pound with all relevant documentation, you can't leave the car there because you get charged an extra £20 a day storage. the cinic in me makes me think it's just another cash cow for motorist's. anyway thanks for everyones help.