Declaring criminal conviction. Direct Line.

salty_seadog

Hi, I have a live non motoring criminal conviction that resulted in community service. It is spent as of May 2020.
During the application process with Direct Line I was not asked about non motoring criminal conviction. Their policy document https://www.directline.com/content/dam/dlg/Direct-Line/Products/Car-insurance/Product-pages/PDF/dl-car-policy-document.pdf is a little vague. On page 3 is a passage relating to it.• "


It reads.


"had any motoring offences including convictions, endorsements, penalty points, fixed penalties (excluding parking penalties), speed camera offences, disqualifications or criminal prosecutions pending"


I don't know if I need to declare or not, the last phrase is a little vague.


If anyone has the time to scan the document and can inform me I would be very grateful.



All advice apreciated.

System

It is referring to motoring offences. Many if not most motoring offences come under criminal law as they are dealt with by a magistrates or higher court if beyond the scope of a fixed penalty notice or a FPN is turned down so despite what people think to the contrary if you're convicted of a motoring offence you do in most cases have a criminal record - "its only motoring so it can't be criminal" is rubbish.

An example of what they're asking for could be you were caught drink driving and are awaiting your day in court, that is the kind of thing you have to declare. It wouldn't be things like having a conviction for say Section 5 Public Order or other non-motoring offences.

vikingaero

IIRC on most car insurance sites, they ask if you have criminal convictions as well as convictions on motoring matters. The reality is "If in doubt, disclose it".



I know that some comparison websites decline to quote if you have non-motoring criminal convictions as these can be relevant to the motoring risk - for example, you have multiple fraud convictions, so will the Insurer want to deal with you?

salty_seadog

For clarification it is a non motoring conviction I have and direct line did not ask about non motoring convictions in the online form and there is no mention in the 'Assumptions we have made' section. The only ambiguity is in the policy document I linked to in the first post and the word passage.

dacouch

The passage you refer to is headed "Changes you need to notify us of" eg if something changes after the policy has started.

The previous paragraph is clearly headed about things you need to notify DL of before the cover commences.

As explained in your other thread, there is no obligation to declare information the Insurer have not specifically asked about during the application process. The law has changed to protect you and you are under no obligation to second guess what information they want, legally they have to ask for a clear question if they want an answer

It is specifically asking in the Policy wording that you declare criminal convictions / pending criminal convictions picked up after taking out the cover. You are under an obligationto declare these (Received / Pending after application). Despite what the previous posters states, this clearly asks for CRIMINAL Convictions as well as detailing motoring convictions so DL want to know about criminal convictions as well as motoring convictions picked up / pending after the policy has been taken out

Car_54

Tarambor wrote: »

It is referring to motoring offences. Many if not most motoring offences come under criminal law as they are dealt with by a magistrates or higher court if beyond the scope of a fixed penalty notice or a FPN is turned down so despite what people think to the contrary if you're convicted of a motoring offence you do in most cases have a criminal record - "its only motoring so it can't be criminal" is rubbish.

Most motoring offences are criminal, but not many are recordable. Only recordable offences result in a criminal record.

salty_seadog

Thanks all.

salty_seadog

I have spoken to direct line today and they confirm they are only interested in motoring offence.