Second No Insurance Offence

Question:

One of my sons was not well that morning and my older son was running very late for school as my friend who normally picks up was stuck in traffic coming from London and I live in maidenhead.

I was approached by an officer as I dropped my son and he asked for my licence. I had a provisional because my licence had just been revoked for driving without an insurance within two years of being a new driver, I had borrowed a friends car and was not really covered to drive it.

He then asked me if I was insured which I was at the time and I gave him my insurance details he then called the insurance company at that time to confirm if my insurance was valid as I was insured as a fully licenced driver and yet I am now on a provisional and they confirmed at that time that I was.

So the officer then just gave me a fixed penalty of £60 of driving without a fully licenced driver (which I paid and got 3 points on it), it was 6 hrs later when I tried to go with a qualified driver to go and pick my car up at the recovery garage that the police then told me that they needed to check if my insurance covered me to drive from a recovery centre.

It was at that point they told me that I gave insurance false information that I was a qualified driver yet I had a revoked licence which was not the case because when I took the insurance I had my full licence but they would not hear of it, they then told my insurance company to void my insurance.

Ihave now just received summons from the magistrates court , what is the best plea as I did drive the car with the knowledge that I was insured and I drove it because of the circumstance I did not have money for a taxi either. Please help me?

Also since my licence was revoked I have tried to take the test twice already in the month of Apr and May and I did not succeed. I am now going to retake it in June. I really am a law abiding citizen in both cases.

Thank you for your help in advance I need to know the best plea and how to argue my case.

Paula Says:

You have to plead guilty I’m afraid if your insurance company will not honour the insurance.

The burden is on you to prove that you were covered at the time and if you cannot do this then you will not defend the allegation.

You are facing 6-8 points and a 6 months ban under the totting up rules I’m afraid.

The court are not going to be sympathetic because you have a similar second no insurance offence on your driving record.

If you can argue that the ban would cause you exceptional hardship you might be able to avoid it, but that will be difficult in light of the fact that you don’t have a full licence anyway.