Mechanic Driving My Car – Insurance Lapsed

Question:

Hi. My car was was in the garage for repair and the driver from the garage was stopped by police and questioned about my car as they could not find any insurance info. The garage notified me and I immediately checked my insurance docs and I was not covered. I have not been driving the car for some time as it has been undriveable but I understand that this is still an offence.

I know everyone says the same thing but I genuinely did not realise my insurance had expired as in previous years they have automatically rolled the insurance on if not contacted but I understand that they are no longer allowed to do this. I have not been contacted by the police as yet but the garage say they will. Where do I stand and what happens next? Regards

Paula Says:

Its an odd one. You could be accused of having use of the car without insurance – but I anticipate the person from the garage had their own insurance and therefore technically it was not being driven/used without insurance at the time of the alleged offence.

You could be accused of permitting the person at the garage of using it without insurance – but again if you thought he/she had their own cover then you would have a defence.

Just make sure that you don’t allow it on the road again without cover and keep me informed if the police get in touch. I think we could probably defend the matter and avoid the 6-8 penalty points that would follow.

Have you got any points already? If so, how many?