Direct Debit Failed

Question:

No Insurance

Hi, after speaking to one of your advisers at your office, they have instructed me to email you with my situation. I have sent you a copy of the letter I will be sending in to the magistrates court defending myself on what has happen. Can you kindly read it and give me a idea on what chances I have defending myself with this true incident. Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you:

I am writing in to request for a court hearing regarding the fixed penalty notice that was produced at x. This penalty notice was produced due to me not having any insurance at the time of the notice.

I was insured by x Insurance, my insurance started on x. I was paying my car insurance by monthly instalments via direct debit. I was away on holiday from the x till x. On the day I went on holiday I took my car to a friends house which is close to x airport.

When I returned from holiday I went and picked my car up and was traveling back home and did not know my insurance was cancelled. When I got stopped by the Police, the officer told me that I had no insurance on the vehicle and gave me a fixed penalty.

When I got home I checked the letters that I received when I was away to find that my car insurance got cancelled. It was cancelled on the x, 9 days before I got back, due to not having sufficient funds in my account.

I understand that this is my responsibility, and I should have had sufficient funds in my account, but I run a business plus I deal with the household bills and I believed that I had covered all the impending bills in all my accounts before I went on holiday.

I have sent in the copy of the first notice letter from my insurance company requesting payment for the unpaid instalment. It was produced on the x, two days after I went abroad. There was no one at home to reply back to this letter or notify me. The notification of policy cancellation letter was produced on the x, when I was still away.

I have sent in photocopies of my insurance certificate, passport and e-ticket to prove I was away during these dates and also to show my insurance arrangement with Co-operative Insurance.

I have held my licence for six years now. My licence is still clean as it was first given and I consider myself to be a responsible driver. I have never driven my cars without insurance or never had an accident. I know how strict the law is about uninsured drivers.

I use my car to get to work six days a week doing a round trip of 14 miles a day therefore my car and licence is very important to my livelihood. I plead of you to not deduct points of my licence just because of this genuine mistake which I understand and accept. I am prepared to pay a fixed money penalty charge if my plea is accepted as my licence/car is essential for me to run my business and to earn a living.

Paula Says:

You won’t have a defence to this matter if you accept that you did not have insurance at the time of the offence – for whatever reason.

You can only argue that there are special reasons to avoid the points if you can show that it was reasonable for you to think that you were insured. You will struggle to do this if the reason the insurance was cancelled was because a direct debit failed – the court will hold you responsible in that regard I’m afraid.

You are not going to get a ban if you have a clean licence at the moment – but you will have to accept the fact that you are going to get 6 points and a fine I’m afraid