Car Insurance Cock-Up Any Redress?

[davebro3]

A friend was stopped by the police & had his car towed for no insurance. In fact he was/is insured so the insurance database was wrong or the cops failed to interrogate it properly.

He had to pay £170 to get his car back and missed 2 days work as a self-employed plaster.

Does he have any legal redress for compensation & how would he go about getting that?

[New Judge]

“It's not proof of current insurance.”

That’s perfectly true. It’s only proof that cover was in place when the certificate was issued (otherwise the insurers would not have issued it).

But the issue really is the way in which police officers decide they have “reasonable grounds…” to suspect the driver was either unlicenced or uninsured.

Section 165a (the power to seize vehicles) was introduced in 2005. Prior to that the police had no powers to seize vehicles which they believed were being driven without insurance or without the driver holding a licence. They could only order the driver to produce his documents within seven days and only if that order was not met could they take action (though only to prosecute for deficiencies, not to seize vehicles).

Section 165a changed all that. The powers they now have are far reaching and, like all similar powers (such as arrest, right of entry, etc.)  they should be exercised only with caution. The biggest problem is that many officers believe their “reasonable grounds” are satisfied absolutely by the absence of an entry on the MID. That is very often enough. But sometimes it isn’t. When a driver argues the point and perhaps produces (what he says) is a valid Certificate of Insurance, it is my view that the officer’s immediate “reasonable grounds” are diminished. They have a duty to take on board what the driver is claiming and should not simply continue down the line that “no MID entry equals no insurance – full stop”.

Of course all cases turn on their individual merits but I think there are circumstances where the police cannot claim they have reasonable grounds to seize a vehicle simply because it is not shown on the MID. I think that (for example) when a driver produces what appears to be a valid Cerificate of Insurance the police have as a minimum an obligation to check its veracity.