Can I appeal the fine I got for being a day out of date to renew insurance based on..

bigjl

Threads like this do show what is wrong with modern society.

I was not insured due to not reading the date on the piece of paper given to prove my insurance.

Enjoy the points and fine.

Funnily enough i have never been caught with no insurance.

It isn't that difficult.

vaio

Nope, it isn't that difficult but some in this world can't manage the simplest things or do manage generally but also make the occasional mistake.

If that happens and they get caught then they should explore the options and pick the one that has minimal effect on them..

For some that would be the fixed penalty option, for others it's a guilty plea with mitigation & a means test at magistrates.

Nodding_Donkey

And remember that for years being uninsured was an economic decision for some, the fines were pathetic and a lot cheaper than getting insured.

Aretnap

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

That sounds great doesn't it? Except the MIB takes so long to pay out that an innocent TP may well have lost their job by the time they got any compensation to replace their vehicle. Never mind the stonking big excess the MIB deduct from the payout. And that's a best case scenario. From their we go to maybe a motorcyclist with a broken leg. Two months with no wages, no job to go back to and 18 months later gets the money for the bike and lost wages for the two months. Is he "no worse off"?

As excuses go for uninsured driving "the MIB will payout" is pathetic.

Whereas no insurance company is ever slow to pay out on a third party claim, are they? Or maybe waiting for compensation is just more bearable when the other driver isn't the sort of moral deviant who forgets her renewal date.

'Tis not intended as an excuse for driving uninsured. Just pointing out that the catastrophes doing you can cause by doing so tend not to be as severe as the "OMG! Think of the children!" contingent on these threads sometimes seem to want them to be.

Anyway to the OP, if you'd like a second opinion and a rather higher signal to noise ratio you could try asking here instead

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=5

though unless there's an unusually good reason why you thought you were insured for the full month I imagine the advice will be much the same as mine in post 10.

AdrianC

thenudeone wrote: »

Using discretion is a legitimate part of policing and, for someone with no previous offences whose insurance had just run out, it might be considered appropriate not to seize, provided someone else drove the vehicle home.

Well, absolutely - provided somebody else (insured) drove the car. I'm sure you're not suggesting that any policeman would ever let an uninsured driver drive away under ANY circumstances?

As I thought I'd made clear, it was "There could even be a case for arguing". I certainly wasn't suggesting that it would happen with any kind of regularity.

Mark_Mark

AdrianC wrote: »

Well, absolutely - provided somebody else (insured) drove the car. I'm sure you're not suggesting that any policeman would ever let an uninsured driver drive away under ANY circumstances?

As I thought I'd made clear, it was "There could even be a case for arguing". I certainly wasn't suggesting that it would happen with any kind of regularity.

Sometimes the driver has to be given the benefit of the doubt. But not so long ago the police had no option but to let them carry on.

AdrianC

Mark_Mark wrote: »

Sometimes the driver has to be given the benefit of the doubt.

Oh, indeed. Where the officer believes the driver is insured, but they just can't prove it.

EmmaRose89

bigadaj wrote: »

You can apply for time to pay the fine and justify with your low income.

Thank you - this would be great, do you know how to do this? Or shall i just call them and ask for their specific way of doing it? I would rather not have to apply for this time by going to court if that's how it's done, and I take note of what people have said - if I run the risk of a £5000 fine and a ban, purely for going to court, I think I will give that a miss!

EmmaRose89

vaio wrote: »

it's not an appeal, there is no appeal.

What the OP is considering is the wisdom of rejecting a fixed penulty and taking it to court where the fine will be based on the specific circumstances to the case including culpability and means/ability to pay.

With low culpability and an early guilty plea the fine should be towards the bottom end of the scale, and depending on income, might well be less than the £300 fixed penalty. and that's before you take into account the ability to pay a fine by instalment, something that isn't available on a fixed penalty

Thank you for this - i read this after my previous post, so, a good idea would be to go to court and ask for a reduction and if no reduction, at least the opportunity to pay in instalments?

How likely do you guys think it would be, that they slap me with a £5000 fine and a ban for going to court about it, based on my circumstances and what I am asking for in court?

vaio

Don't know about a good idea, certainly worth considering depending on your circumstances

Have a read of the guidelines http://sentencingcouncil.judiciary.gov.uk/docs/MCSG_Update9_October_2012.pdf and see where you think you'll be.

Basically no insurance is a band C fine which is 150% of your weekly income excluding CB, HB, CT and similar. You could be expecting to get 30% off that for an early guilty plea plus a further reduction for low culpability/harm.