Driving with No Insurance

[DragonKnight]

Last July 2006 I was pulled over for driving with no insurance, I was totally unaware that my insurance company had stopped my policy, they never sent me any letters or anything. (a direct debit bounced as I was �2 short)<But i didn't find this out untill I had been pulled up.
I had only been driving for just over a year. Anyway the car was taken away and we paid the fine and we thought no more of it. We moved away from the address 3 months later and thought it was all done with.
A few days ago we had the balifs knocking at my work door trying to find me because I had not showed up in court in april 2007 a whole 9 months later, But as we had moved then no letter had reached me so I had no idea I had to go. In April 2007 I had officially been driving for 2 years and so I could suffer 6 points on my licence but would they backdate it to the time of the offence?if so would I loose my licence? I work for a mortgage brokers and i drive up and down the country everyday, If I lost my licence then I would undoubtdly loose my job and I have just had a child meaning I need money to pay my rent bills and put clothes on my childs back and food in his belly, ALSO my mother is severly ill and I am the only other person who is able to give her injections, I can get to her in about 5 mins flat with a licence but with no licenceit would take me up to an hour!!
Would the court have mercy and lumber me with a hefty fine? or maybe the 6 points but from now and not from when the offence happened? Please all advice and help would be good thanks people

[NORMANTHEDOG]

driving with no insurance is a fine and 6/8 pts on your licence,which means you will lose your licence,something as important as your car insurance payment should have been one of your priorities to make sure there was enough cash in your account,you could plead your case in court,but nowadays magistrates are hot on this. my own opinion,having had a close relative knocked over and badly injured by someone uninsured is that they should all be banned for 3 yrs,lets hope one day this crap goverment brings it in to the laws of this country

[DragonKnight]

thanks for your very pointless view!! lets hope one day it happens to you!! my life as I know it is riding on this!! we aint all mad crazy drivers im what you call a human and our species do make mistakes!!

[DragonKnight]

You clearly have no idea about exceptional hardship defence or special reasons defence do you??

[NORMANTHEDOG]

you ********,you should have thought about that when you forgot to leave enough money in your bank account,lets hope you do get banned and fail your test,we dont need to$$ers like you on the road.

[tiggerwoo]

Sorry, but if your livelihood and the welfare of your family are dependent on your driving license then keeping your insurance up to date should surely be a very important priority. When you change address you should notify all the people that need to know and ideally have your mail redirected...then you would have received your court summons which surely you realised was coming. A court would not listen to these excuses...they here the same or similar every day. Afraid you will have to pay the price for yor oversight".

[DragonKnight]

well peoplethis site is **** you all gave me crap advice and just so you all know my case has been thrown out of court my hardship defence was a good one!! my family would suffer to much if i lost it!! so both responses arwe ****** bollox hahahahahaha!!!! looks like im staying on the road after all oh and mr hedgehog man you are a well and true ******* ****** with no good advice at all. see you on the roads people!!

[johnbikemad]

for future reference pay your insurance in full when taking out the policy but ask for a discount if you do and hopefully avoid problems like this

[NORMANTHEDOG]

your a bloody liar.you post this question at 4.44pm on friday afternoon,then you say you got off,in your dreams sunshine,courts dont open till monday at 10 am.

[Buenchico]

The 'standard' penalty, in a magistrates' court, for driving with no insurance is 6 to 8 points on your licence, plus a fine. (The maximum fine is �5000 but, depending upon the offender's disposable income, courts would normally be more likely to impose a fine in the range �80 to �400).

However, there is no mandatory requirement for a court to add penalty points to a licence. Consult a solicitor, who will be able to advise you as to the best way to present your case to the court. (e.g. it might help to present bank statements, showing that you had a direct debit in place and that your bank had bounced a payment). You may well be able to avoid having any points added to your licence.

However, if 6 (or more) points are imposed, you licence will be revoked under the terms of the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995. The DVLA/DirectGov website states "penalty points incurred after the probationary period has expired will be taken into account if the offence was committed during the probationary period":
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/LearnerAn dNewDrivers/NewlyQualifiedDrivers/DG_4022566

You should remember, though, that 'revocation' is not the same as 'disqualification'. You can immediately apply for a new provisional licence and book another driving test. If you're prepared to attend whichever test centre, within reasonable distance of your home, has the shortest waiting list, you could be back on the road (with a new, full licence) within a very short time.

Chris

PS: Please don't judge this site based upon Norman's posts. Most contributors to this site understand the concepts of helpfulness and courtesy; unfortunately, Norman doesn't.

[tiggerwoo]

DragonKnight an attitude like yours will get you everywhere...not. Hope you don't go off on your swearing rant like that in court. Even if you lose your license it won't bother you...you will just drive while disqualified of course...on the grounds dah-dedah-de-dah.....we've heard it all before..wonder what your excuse will be when you run someone over...pathetic....

[NORMANTHEDOG]

thanks chris,lets see how you feel when a uninsured driver runs into you.

[Panic Button]

This is just another green name making up a story because he enjoys seeing Mr Angry of Tunbridge Wells getting on his high horse.

Don't rise to the bait.

I'm surprised you fell for it Norman, you should have seen enough of them by now.I

[NORMANTHEDOG]

yeah you could be right panic button,it allways seems to be the greenies, still never mind,when you have idiots like chris supporting them,i feel i have to say something,lets see how he feels when he has one hit him or a member of his family.

[Loosehead]

Just a small point Norman, would your family member have been less injured had the driver been insured? You make it sound like not having insurance caused the accident.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

no,loosehead,but she would have got a bit more compo to help her as she cant walk anymore,all she got was a little from the fund set up by the insurance companies to help people in this situation.

[DragonKnight]

Buenchico thank you so much your help was most appreciated!! the rest of you were no help at all!!!

[spaced]

Dragon, what sort of answer did you expect? Im with Norman on this one