no insurance

[weecoffeecup]

this is a bit of a long story but am wondering if anyone has any advice my sons car was written off after 2 months of owning it not his fault insurance company paid out took full years premium from settlement figure and cancelled policy son bought car back from insurance company and got fixed car was off road for 51 days insurance company then reinstated policy we assumed this 51 days would be added to end of policy however only discovered this was not the case and his policy had ran out when involved in another accident and phoned insurance company they were extremely unhelpful and issued refund of 51 days premium problem is now son is going to court for driving uninsured has a new job for which he needs licence and is paying for a car he no longer has , been driving less than 2 years are there any circumstances where less than 6 points are given

[JudgeJ]

Firstly, your son should plead guilty to this offence. "No Insurance" is what is known as an �absolute� offence. It is the driver�s responsibility to ensure (absolutely) that he has a valid insurance policy. If he has not he is guilty of an offence, whatever the circumstances.

He should go to court and plead guilty, and explain the circumstances. As you have probably discovered, the offence carries a minimum of six points and there is generally no way round this. As a �new� driver the DVLA will automatically revoke his full licence and he will revert to provisional status. (The magistrates have no say in this matter. It is done by the DVLA when they are informed that the driver has accumulated six points).

The only hope your son has of avoiding this is to ask the court to impose a short disqualification (perhaps 14-28 days) instead of the points. Strangely, a disqualification does not lead to the revocation of the licence.

Although the magistrates have the discretion to do this, they will need persuading as they are effectively increasing the sentence beyond their guidelines without just cause. This is especially so as presumably the new Certificate of Insurance clearly had an expiry date shown. It would be a good idea to employ a solicitor to put his case. He will be able to fully explain how your son came to be without insurance and link the probable consequences of six points to his employment prospects, etc.

[weecoffeecup]

thanks for that, got an appointment to see solicitor monday son did not get a new certificate of insurance company were incompetent in all our dealings with them however on certificate policy ran out on 30/07/06 he was charged on02/ 08 /06 oh well fingers crossed for best possible outcome