A friend of mine was driving home from work a few days ago. Six miles from home was lit up by blues and pulled over. No insurance madam ? She thought she had, was positive in fact. Transpires that her husband, a driving instructor pal of mine, had recently changed his ‘ instructor’ car, put on his private plates ( name of his school) and somehow had insured the car twice.
I wasn’t even aware that was possible.
She was told that if not insured it would be towed and impounded, the polis agreed their other car now had two lots of insurance on it, and no they wouldn’t follow her the six rural
miles home for a cup of tea and slice of cake.
Fortunately hubby was not out with a pupil, so managed to insure it for a day and they sorted out his mix up the following day. At least it wasn’t impounded… could have taken forever to get a tow truck out to the sticks.
Six penalty points and a fine to follow in due course.
Admittedly they were in the wrong, but it’s left a bad feeling as they were local polis ( the only type in our part of the world).
Local farm lads seem to get away with lots of minor infringements, phones glued to ear, no lights or indicators on their trailers, wrong reg plates on trailers seems to be compulsory. Too much hassle that I suppose.
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I'm not one for throwing the book at one and all but driving without insurance seems pretty serious to me. They weren't to know whether it was genuine cock up or otherwise really, and if she had been involved in an incident, even on her own, I doubt the insurance would have been forgiving either, or any other parties involved.
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I agree that the possible consequences on a third party of, intentionally or not, driving without insurance are a magnitude higher than most minor traffic violations and that the police should absolutely be holding people accountable. It’s a peculiar sense of entitlement that makes one think that their serious transgressions should be ignored, yet minor transgressions by other should be penalised with the full weight of the law…. Being hit and seriously injured by an uninsured driver could really mess up your life, and given insurers predilection for declining claims I don’t see them backing an offender, intentional or otherwise.
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"Being hit and seriously injured by an uninsured driver could really mess up your life"
Could seriously mess up your life if they were insured, but that's what the MIB is there for and is paid for by all of us.
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AIUI, police always stop an ininsured vehicle as they're commonly used by criminals and a stop often leads to more offences.
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I hadn’t realised that the MIB was insurer of last resort for those who weren’t on top of their admin. Good to know that we are all paying the price in our insurance for that…so thanks to the police for trying to minimise my insurance premiums ;)
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>> I hadn’t realised that the MIB was insurer of last resort for those who weren’t
>> on top of their admin.
Kinda. They are not going to be paying for your car that was written off, or for your house bay window that has been caved in. They will be paying for personal injury however.
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>> Kinda. They are not going to be paying for your car that was written off,
>> or for your house bay window that has been caved in. They will be paying
>> for personal injury however.
>>
Subject to their rules, they will pay the aggrieved party for "property" damage. (property can be of most kinds, including a vehicle or house, for example).
The first, aggrieving, party has no resort to the MIB (and may well find themselves subject to legal proceedings to recover all or part of any compensation).
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Seems perfectly reasonable policing to me.
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Uninsured is uninsured. Intent, cock ups etc make no difference.
I was nearly caught out a few years ago where insurer gave me a good renewal quote and stated it would auto renew - NFA I thought.
Then they kept emailing prompts to pay. After the third I called them.
For whatever reason they cancelled the auto renewal. Paid with card there then; problem solved.
Six points for no insurance is a massive downer with the industry and LL's friend will I suspect have a bigger penalty there then the fine for the offence.
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A few years ago I had a police car follow me home and light up as I pulled in. We arrived at the same time as visitors, so had to greet them at the same time as finding the insurance certificate for my car, which I had renewed 4 weeks prior but which hadn't been updated on the MID. Slightly sweaty palms for 5 minutes, but once the police had seen the certificate they were happy. Turned out it was the changeover day for the policies, and the database can sometimes take 24 hours to refresh. At least it got picked up quickly, I suppose.
Last edited by: Dave_ on Sun 27 Sep 26 at 15:55
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If you want sweaty palms about insurance, try raking through all your documents trying to find out who you are insured with whilst you are out in the street and the fire service have got 3 hoses aimed at your house trying to get the flames under control!
And then you phone them and they say they will check if you are covered and phone you back shortly……
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If you are in the street watching your house burn down, who it is insured with is, at that time, not your first sweaty palms worry., It comes after you have counted all are safe and booking a hotel to stay that night or two.
Then you worry about insurance.
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Wrong.
Already knew all were safe.
Next step insurance to find out what happened next.
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>> Wrong.
>> Already knew all were safe.
>> Next step insurance to find out what happened next.
Well maybe they do things differently up there, but I am not going to be standing out in the street with my wife and two dogs in front of my unhinhabitable house scratching around on line trying to find out who I am insured with, I am on the travelodge web site booking a room.
Then i am going to use their wifi to scrabble around on line.
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Was midday.
Long time before worrying where I was sleeping that night. But with plenty of family and friends and neighbours nearby I knew it wouldn’t be an issue.
And I wasn’t disappearing while my house was still on fire.
So no reason to delay in contacting insurers.
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I refer to an experience in 2022:
car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=29871&m=646113
I have no doubt I was somewhat lucky and despite comments by the Direct Line representative that an Indemnity could be issued if something had flagged up in the interim I doubt that would be the case. Absolute Offence and no opportunity to mitigate.
Bromponaut signposted us to this article where DL refused any responsibility.
www.theguardian.com/money/2022/may/17/direct-line-mix-up-led-to-300-fine-and-six-points-on-licence
Bottom line is don't take remewal for granted.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sun 27 Sep 26 at 21:55
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I always keep copies of documents in car…V5C, MOT, insurance, breakdown cover.
In Spain the authorities want the original V5C ( which i don’t leave in car in case it gets stolen, but in my man bag with passport)
Need to renew my annual CDW insurance, normally £43, before my next overseas rental late November…€123 for 14 days with OK Mobility
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I’m reliably informed here in rural Devon that plod are told to leave the farmers alone.
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Over zealous policing ? - smokie
