What to Do If You’re Caught Driving Without Insurance
If you’re stopped by the police for driving without insurance then they’ll give you seven days to produce your insurance documents at your local police station.
You need to carefully check over your insurance policy to make sure it actually covers you for the day you were stopped; don’t just believe the police when they say you’re not covered.
If there is a problem, then you need to engage a team like Kenway Miller motoring solicitors. Driving law specialists are able to see things that you may not, or that you’ve overlooked. Some drivers land in trouble because they don’t understand their insurance properly. For example, they believe – in all honesty – that their fully comprehensive insurance means they can drive all and any vehicle in a certain class when in fact they can only drive named vehicles.
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If you have valid insurance
Then you should take your documents to your local police and explain yourself; this should prevent any further action. If it turns out that your insurance isn’t valid, don’t panic, your legal team can still help you.
All you need to do is to take the documents to your police station and present them. This will almost certainly stop things going further. If, however, it seems your insurance isn’t valid for some reason, then you need your legal team.
If you didn’t know you weren’t insured
This can happen quite easily. It’s possible your insurer cancelled your policy and failed to inform you; if so, this may be a special reason to avoid penalty points. If your insurer didn’t write, phone or email you to tell you, then you stand a good chance of avoiding points.
What are special reasons?
Special reasons are extenuating circumstances surrounding the commission of an offence that solicitors that, if accepted by the Court, can be used to avoid endorsement. They may apply if you were misled or genuinely mistaken about your insurance. If you held a genuine and reasonably held (but mistaken) belief you were insured the Court may decide not to endorse points on your licence. A common example of this is when parents believe that their own insurance policy covers one of their children to drive the family car.
If you believe you may have special reasons, then ideally you should have a lawyer to argue your case for you. Motoring offence lawyers see driving without insurance cases all the time and so they can not only mount a good defence for you, they can advise you on your most likely outcome.
What outcomes are there?
If you end up being convicted of driving without insurance, then you’ll probably get between six and eight points on your driving licence. If this new set of points takes your total to 12 or more, then you’ll be disqualified under the totting-up scheme (for a minimum of six months). You can plead exceptional hardship to try to avoid a ban, or to at least reduce the length.
You may also get a fine – anywhere from £300 to £5,000, depending on your circumstances and record.
Author: Sheikh Hazaifa
