Insurance Had Lapsed By 5 Minutes!

Question:

My husband and I bought a new car, I have phoned our insurance company to transfer the insurance on the new car the next day at 11am as we are picking it up at that time and part exchanging the old car.

The next day I went to work and my husband with my children went to pick up the new car but a bit late at 11:05 on their way to the garage about 3 miles away, my husband was stopped by the police due to driving without insurance, my husband told the police officer that he was picking up the new car etc.

The police officer phoned the insurance company of my husband to extend his insurance up to 12 noon to get to the garage to pick up the new car and the insurance company with no problem has done so. But despite the extension of my husband insurance to 12 noon the police officer still issued penalty for £200 and 6 points on his licence, isn’t this unfair and we want to appeal this in court.

Do we stand a chance? My husband has already has 3 points on his licence for speeding in Oct x. So he is very distressed about the 6 points penalty. Please advice us.

Paula Says:

The problem is that at the time he was driving the car in question was uninsured. The insurance company are not allowed to extend the insurance or reinstate it for the period in question.

What they would have done is simply swap the insurance back to the old car from the time of the call until 12 noon. Therefore there will have been a gap in the insurance for the car your husband was driving.

Did you husband know that the insurance was going to run out at 11 am? What did you tell him after you had sorted it out? He may have a special reasons argument to avoid the points if he was in any way misled into thinking that he was covered at 11.05am.