Insurance problem

the_sherrif

Hi to you all.I have been driving for over 37 years without ever having any points on my license indeed never had a parking ticket either.One day last week I was pulled over by the police who informed me the delivery van I was driving was not insured.As I have worked for the company for the best part of 20 years I thought this must be wrong as we have at least 10 vehicles which are used on a daily basis for delivering.It turns out the company had no insurance as it they had not renewed it.They have since done so but I was charged with driving without it.I had been in a minor bump with a bus in October whereby I contacted my office who at that point gave me our insurance details which were valid at that time.As no one had told any of the drivers that the insurance had lapsed I feel very hard done by.Can anyone give me advice on where I stand with this as I’m worried sick over it.Thanks in advance,

wgl2014

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/143

Pay attention to part 3c.

As an employee you have a statutory defence that you were using the vehicle for work and had no reason to think there was no insurance in place.

Lomast

There is a defense when driving a company vehicle and you have no reason to believe the company does not have insurance.
You will probably have to not accept the fpn and take it to court with a not guilty plea.

Rover_Driver

chrisw wrote: »

Unfortunately driving without insurance is an absolute offence i.e., there is no excuse. It is your responsibility to ensure there is insurance in place before you drive.

It is also your company's responsibility to ensure you have insurance in place so they have also committed an offence with the same penalties.

You may be able to argue for more leniency in the punishment due to the circumstances, might be worth speaking to a solicitor.

As in posts 2 & 3, there is a statutory defence for the OP - RTA 1988, s.143, 3(c).

chrisw

Rover_Driver wrote: »

As in posts 2 & 3, there is a statutory defence for the OP - RTA 1988, s.143, 3(c).

Yeah, spotted that so deleted my post.

the_sherrif

Thanks guys,feeling a wee bit better about this now

wgl2014

What stage are things at? Were you given a penalty notice or told you were being reported?

Ideally if you get your defence together you may be able to get things stopped before it gets to court.

the_sherrif

I was told I will be reported to the procurator fiscal(I live in Scotland).The police took the van away to a pound and it’s now back with us after being insured.I wasn’t given any paperwork other than the the papers to say they were seizing the vehicle due to it not being insured.To be honest it was a bit of a blur and because I have no slip to say I’ve been charged I’m not entirely sure I have.

wgl2014

Ok, I'm not familiar with the different procedures north of the border.

If you head over to the Pepipoo forum you will get some good advice on what to do next.

I would suggest that a letter from you and your employer to the prosecution explaining your defence may convince them there are no grounds to carry on with the case (against you). They may instead look at charges against your employer.

AdrianC

wgl2014 wrote: »

Ok, I'm not familiar with the different procedures north of the border.

The legislation's the same in England and Wales, and in Scotland.

The link to the legislation posted at the start of the thread has a button that says "Show Geographical Extent" - this tells you where it applies...

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/143?view=extent

E+W+S = England, Wales, Scotland.

wgl2014

I might not have been as clear as I could have.... I get that the legislation is the same however the court system and way things are dealt with is sometimes different.