Driving without insurance

[kez01]

A friend of mine was stopped by the police about a month ago for driving without insurance, its her brothers car and she claims she was unaware that the insurance did not cover her (ignorance is bliss). The police told her they would be in touch in a few weeks and have as yet not contacted her. She seems to think that as it has been a month or so now they wont bother, but i feel that this cant be right as whats good for the goose....Just over a year ago an uninsured driver smashed into our car and we lost 3 years no claims and had to pay the excess to get the car back from the garage aswell as increased premiums, the lad involved was fined and banned for 6 months...wow...but surely although she was not involved in an accident the penalty should be the same and she should not be seen to get off with the offence, she has been driving for a little over a year and although a friend i am very dissapointed with her.

Any ideas as to the process or timeframes within the police work. Is she likely to just receive a court date through the post??

Thanks

[MORELLO]

Your right, the offence should be the same and she should be penalised. I have to admit though in my younger days I was 'let off' with a couple of offences after being told I would be contacted. You may find this to be the case, or they may be just processing a number of cases. I suspect however that the officer involved (unless a traffic cop) can't be bothered and has let it slide...

[JudgeJ]

The prosecution must start the case within 6 months of the offence and many traffic offences take almost that long to reach court.

If convicted your friend will recieve a fine of about one week�s income (reduced by a third if she pleads guilty) and receive a minimum of six penalty points. If she has held a full licence for less than two years the six points will lead to revocation of her licence, meaning she reverts to �Learner� status. She will have to take her test (including the theory part) again.

[kez01]

Thats what i thought...Does the less than 2 years driving apply to the time of the offence or the conviction?

[Toureman]

The time of offence.

[boro1986]

Your a really good friend your MATE f***** up fair enough these things happen and im sure a lot of us have driven someone elses car thinking or knowing we were third party on theirs. As you state your friend is a new driver so not commending what she did but she might of genuinnly not known. But to say i hope my mate gets whats coming to her well!!!!!

[ugly_bob]

well, unless the copper can't be bothered, she's in the ****.
My mate got done a few years back for driving without insurance. It was an error from the insurance company, but he still got fined and points. Ins. Co. paid fine, but he had to take points on his license.

[kez01]

Firstly, i did not say i hope she gets whats coming to her, but the law is the law and i cant see how being someones friend should make any difference as to whether i feel she should pay the price or not. As a fellow driver i pay higher premiums to compensate for the fact that many pay none at all, we had our car badly damaged by an uninsured driver 12 months ago that has cost us a lot of money, both insurance exsesses and higher premiums because we had to claim. I simpy asked because she is gloating as she feels she has been let off!!!! and she is well aware of my feelings on the subject, she is also well aware that she told me she was insured and also that she had seen the documentation, which i now know to be untrue as she told me her brother had only told her about and not shown her the insurance docs. I do feel bad for her and i will support her whatever happens we have been friends for over 20 years but that does not excuse the fact that she drove uninsured. I just think she is very lucky that she was pulled over and caught out rather than being involved in an accident. I can not pretend to condone what she has done and why should i, i would feel just as dissapointed if it was a close family member.

[Gef]

The first line of the question is just nonsense. The police don't stop you for having no insurance as they don't know who has insurance in the first place. If they stop you (for whatever reason) they can ask you to present your driving licence, insurance and MOT at a police station of your choice within, I think, 7 days and then if you don't they will proceed with charges.

[kez01]

She was stopped becaused the police thought she had no insurance, they were using one of the scanner things they have and ran her reg plate through the system and pulled her over based on the fact that the police data base had no record of insurance for the car. She was questioned at the scene and told to produce her docs within 7 days but she couldnt because there were none.

[BenDToy]

Gef - I understand there is now a database of insured vehicles. Think about it - how else could you get your road tax on line?

[treacle-tart]

Gef

Sorry - you are soooo wrong.

Many police cars are fitted with Number plate reading cameras which automatically check the insurance database. This tells the police, almost instantly, whether an insurance policy is in effect for that vehicle.

If there is none the police will pull the driver over to check if the driver is insured under a different policy but if the cars not insured a "tug" is almost guananteed.

Bekki

[Alltorque]

Whilst I think it's probably back to "Learner" status for you "friend", have a look at this site. It's usually pretty good on definitive stuff like this........despite the odd name.

www.pepipoo.com/

[tictoc]

I've just had my court date through for Jan 07 after being stopped in May 06. Stopped for driving without insurance, I was in my friends car. She thought she was insured, but we now know there was a mix up over the renewal , by a few days missed cover.(she is in dispute with her insurer's now, but they have said whatever the outcome, they will not restrospectively backdate the cover). I am fully comp with 3rd party cover for any other car, as is she (or so she thought). Never been stopped before, let alone had a summons....am gutted. Just waiting for my day in court and the points on my license (am hoping that it's not going to be as bad as a total ban) and am just hoping my pocket wont get hit with too much of a fine.

[malibu212]

wot happened matey?