Alleged driving without insurance

jezebel68

Looking for some advice please! We live in France, my husband bought a car in the UK and decided to tax it just to take it back to France (for 1 day) When it arrived in France the car was taxed in France immediately and all the paperwork sent off to the authorities here in France and was ultimately given a carte gris and new number plate. However my husband has been given a summons to appear in court for not having a car insured in the UK on the date the car tax ran out. All the paperwork was sent to the courts showing the taxation, new registration and dates and although we have done this twice before in France with no problems we have now received a summons to the magistrates court, If we don't go we will received a fine? If we do go we have to go to the expense of ferries, hotels and a solicitor? Any suggestions please.

waamo

This is clearly nothing to do with parking or parking tickets.

You are best off going to the Pepioo forums found here http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?act=idx

This is a criminal matter and they are experts in this kind of thing.

nosferatu1001

It is also a very confusing story, because vehicle excise duty ("car tax") clearly has NOTHING to do with Insurance

Basically - did your husband have insurance while in the UK? Yes or No. Easy question to answer.

jezebel68

Yes he did.

twhitehousescat

jezebel68 wrote: »

Yes he did.

perhaps the question should have been phrased

did you husband have Valid UK insurance for the vehicle in question

second question

where are the police writing to , your french address or a UK one ?

jezebel68

Valid UK insurance through company insurance which still ran when the car was insured in France. The summons has come through to our son's address in the UK where my husband stays when not travelling elsewhere. So basically valid UK insurance for an extended period of time and taxed for 6 months for a trip of one day to take the car over to France. Have previously bought two cars in the UK and done the same thing with no problems whatsoever.

twhitehousescat

contact the police or whoever instigated the case and send info regarding insurance , also inform them AND THE COURT of your PERMANENT address in france

seem strange the they have your sons address as your paperwork for the car would reflect that it was bought by a french national and exported/sent to france

when the car was bought , was the v5 sent to the dvla by previous owner?

jezebel68

Many thanks twhitehouse but the courts were supplied with all the paperwork pertaining to the car in the UK and in France which showed it was insured both in the UK and France, they were given our french address which has been ignored and they have sent a summons to appear in a Magistrates Court to the UK address. V5 was sent to the DVLA. My husband unfortunately is not a french national and I can only assume that the french side of things here have not returned all the appropriate paperwork to the UK - and trying to make sense of everything this side is nigh on impossible as the system has changed from the local Prefecture to an online system which has caused many problems over here

KeithP

Follow the guidance you were given in post #2 above.

nosferatu1001

Was it insured with a UK insurance company, or an Insurance company registered on the UK Insurance database?

Yes
or
No

If YES then you have an absolute defence and you should, for the sake of justice, tell them to deal with this outside of a hearing - the CPS should withdraw

If NO then you have NO defence and are guilty.

jezebel68

Insured with a UK insurance company and taken to France within 2 days of purchase where it was immediately put on French Insurance. The UK Insurance continued for two months just in case we needed to go over to the UK, but on the 28th February the tax ran out and this is the date they have said we didn't have insurance. By this time the car had been in France for 5 months and was fully registered on french plates from beginning of January. The original summons came and we pleaded not guilty and sent all the appropriate paperwork over to prove this and now we are summoned to appear at a Magistrates Court