Covered Third Party On Other Cars

Question:

My husband was stopped on the way home from the dentist on Tuesday morning and received a £200 fine and 6 points on his licence as well as having the car impounded. This cost an extra £150 to be released. My husband was driving my car which was recently bought so our son could learn to drive.

My husband is not a named driver on the policy but he does have fully comp on a van he drives and is a named driver on another fully comp insurance on the family car which I’m the main driver.

He believed like many that he was covered third party to drive the car in question. I understand the severity of the offence, but I have been angered by the fact that as a genuine law abiding citizen, my husband has been penalised harshly for a genuine mistake.

I’ve tried to appeal the penalty and the police did ask me to contact the insurance to ask for an indemnity letter stating that my husband was covered 3rd party on the vehicle for that day.

They would then drop the case. The insurance has refused to do this of course therefore I am back to square one. What gets to me most is that there are genuine law breakers out there who have no intention of insuring their cars and are getting away from being penalised.

I understand that I don’t really have a case on the issue of the penalty, but what is the law on pounding the car. We were not allowed to move the car off the public road for a later pickup. The police instructed a local garage to pick the car up and tow it away where we had to later pick it up for a fee of £150 – half of which goes to the police and half to the garage.

This really is easy money to the police and I’m really disappointed that there isn’t a lesser penalty for genuine mistakes especially when we are paying fully comprehensive insurance on 3 vehicles and always declare the points if we have any.

I really would like your response on the whole matter but the impounding is what I would really welcome your response on as I believe there is nothing I can do about the rest!

Paula Says:

Did your husband own the car? Or was it bought for your son? Being the registered keeper is not proof of ownership. If the car was bought for your son then your husband maybe able to claim that he was covered on his van insurance if that was fully comprehensive?

If you have accepted the fixed penalty and paid the fine/taken the points etc then you are going to struggle to defend this matter.

I will be happy to help you if you haven’t taken the ticket but the key point is who owned the vehicle. Reference the impounding of the car – the police are entitled to seize a car if they have a reasonable suspicion that it isn’t insured I’m afraid.