Court fine for no insurance

nem39esis

Short story is i though both cars were on a multicar policy turns out when I renewed i only insured one car, should've checked but honest mistake. Anyway wife was pulled over for no insurance and car impounded, cost £150 to get car back, then court summons, decided to plead guilty by post, filled in stagent of means which basically boils down to having no money for anything, also included mitigating circumstances explaining what happend and how never not had insurance etc and was mistake, even enclosed the 2 quotes which were same price so would make no sense to pick the one that only covered one car.

Any way fine comes through post today after court hearing on 3rd with fine of £500 and 6 points and that it must be paid by 17th which is 5 days from now. There was nothing about how the ruling was made, what was concluded or anything. And we simply can't afford £500.

So my question is, have they even taken any of the information into consideration? Should we not get a breakdown of how the court arrived at this fine in the first place?

Spicy_McHaggis

Isn't there an option to pay in instalments?

If not call the fines office and ask.

agrinnall

It begs the question, if you have no money how can you afford to be running two cars? Sell one, pay the fine, save on insurance.

nem39esis

Agrinnall, i don't simply have £500 lying around at the moment, money in=money out. And selling a car would make it slightly impossible for me or my wife to then get to work to pay for the bills we already have

nem39esis

No there wasn't anything about spreading payments etc which makes me think that the information requested and supplied on statement of means and mitigating circumstances wasnt even looked at

rs65

£500 and 6 points is fairly standard. Its not supposed to be easy for you.

EssexExile

Contact the court, there should be fines officer. Negotiate a payment plan.

AdrianC

£500 is a heck of a lot cheaper than it would have been if your wife had been involved in a collision. rs65 is right.

And just wait until your renewal next year...

nem39esis

So many who write posts as if they're high and mighty, Jesus, if you made the same mistake do you think people saying, "oh it would've been so much more expensive if you had an accident" and "it's not supposed to be easy" helps in any way? No, it's just pathetic.

I want clarity simple as, hate people who constantly feel they are in the right just because they've never made a mistake- yet.

See so many people on these forums who want nothing more than to laugh at other people's misery and attempt to make a point about right and wrong whilst trying to prove theyre better than others. Just go and annoy others please if you have nothing of construct to say.

Thanks essexexile for the advice however, I'll call and see what I can do.

Spicy_McHaggis

nem39esis wrote: »

So many who write posts as if they're high and mighty, Jesus, if you made the same mistake do you think people saying, "oh it would've been so much more expensive if you had an accident" and "it's not supposed to be easy" helps in any way? No, it's just pathetic.

I want clarity simple as, hate people who constantly feel they are in the right just because they've never made a mistake- yet.

See so many people on these forums who want nothing more than to laugh at other people's misery and attempt to make a point about right and wrong whilst trying to prove theyre better than others. Just go and annoy others please if you have nothing of construct to say.

Thanks essexexile for the advice however, I'll call and see what I can do.

Well that's a fact and a consequence of being convicted of a criminal offence so you won't get any sympathy from some.

Aretnap

The magistrates sentencing guidelines (you can Google them) recommend a Band C fine for driving without insurance - which means approximately your weekly post-tax income taking the guilty plea into account. To that you can add around £85 in prosecution costs and another 10% in victim surcharge. Was the fine significantly greater than that? If so, you might have grounds for appeal. If not, all you can really do is ask to pay by instalments.

Only your income is generally taken into account when setting the fine. If you have a lot of outgoings this will be considered if you ask to pay by installments but will not affect the level of the fine itself.