Just been pulled over by the police

Op , I used to work in insurance I'm sure this will be sorted this morning. But what you should do is say you will stay on the phone whilst they e mail you your certificate of insurance and you check you have received it whilst you are still on to them .

It doesn't seem to be a random stop, they could tell the car was uninsured because it wasn't on the MID. They can actually seize your car at the roadside if it's uninsured so the email op showed them probably helped the situation somewhat.

Sorry the police were brash with you OP. There's no need for that and their training actually teaches them to be polite and deescalate. Sounds like all will be okay though!

But they do. Police have ANPR which scans the number plate of every passing vehicle and bings up an alert if they find that it's not insured or has no MOT. Then the police have grounds to stop it and check for other motoring offences.

No she doesn't. She was under the influence.

He was breathalysed because he had no insurance, people that have no insurance are more likely to break other rules/be wanted by the police.

ANPR cameras are in police cars and flag up if a car isn't insured. This is why they were stopped.

I don't watch Motorway Cops :)

It wasn't random. Their computer will have flagged up an uninsured vehicle. You don't have to watch many of the 'Motorway Cops' type programmes to see that many people who don't bother with insurance also don't bother replacing their tyres etc as often as they should and could well be driving dangerous vehicles.

That doesn't make sense.

If they were waiting in a layby and a car passed, why would they hone in on it and stop it for no reason?

They won't have the computer on checking insurance of every passing car.

Regarding insurance, if a police car is driving behind someone (driving quite normally) for example, are they actively checking everyone then? every time they see a number plate

Presumably this is done automatically by an on board system?

Just curious as this seems like quite a lot of checking. I always thought they only checked insurance if someone was driving erratically

But surely they only knew that once they'd stopped the car?

Were they waiting outside wherever you were picked up?

I'm sorry to push on this but I thought they weren't allowed to do random stop and questioning .

Their computer will have pinged an apparently uninsured vehicle.

They will know that lack of insurance is often just one of many motoring offences so check through the obvious like drink driving, vehicle defects, at the same time.

But the OP says he was driving as if under the influence.
I'd assume an insurance check was done AFTER stopping someone. Not as a random check on any passing car.

First Central are awful. I had a problem with them where they changed my job title (based on what a previous job had been as stated on my previous policy with another insurer) and then charged me for it, failed to show the correct no claims and charged me for asking for it to be corrected, and still failed to put it right.
I went to the financial ombudsman over it.
A friend is having similar problems.
They are useless.

Agree with others that you have to contact the insurance company as soon as possible and demand to speak to a team leader / manager.

Lay out exactly what happened last night and tell them they need to sort it out as a matter of urgency. GET A NAME of whoever you spoke to.

Ask them for the name/email of the person who deals with their complaints and contact them.

I have recently been through a complaints process with the Financial Ombudsman and they were brilliant and quick, BUT you have to go through the company's internal complaints process first and still be unhappy with the outcome to use the service.

I’m glad you can see it active. Massive complaint to insurance company stating you’d be claiming against them for any risk to your husbands job and associated stress from their series of mistakes with your policy.

Stopped because the car flagged up as uninsured.

https://enquiry.navigate.mib.org.uk/checkyourvehicle

You can log here and check your car is insured. A certificate these days is not enough, if needs to be showing on here.

I think it was because it was late and was visibly under the influence and also had young DD in the back.

???

You mean he was driving as if drunk?

On a slightly different note, are the police allowed to do random stop and questioning?

I thought there had to be a reason (unless it's changed) like erratic driving, bulb not working in a headlight or indicator etc.

I wonder why they breathalised him for no reason?

If you open the picture the first line is about a refund.

But OP has now explained that it was for the first DD and she has paid in full so should be fine

Then don't make a complaint, explain what's happened and ask them to fix it.

I had a similar experience, but it was my fault in the end.
Pulled over, no insurance apparently. I was confused as to why and upset. I cried. Police were actually lovely!
Got £250 (or maybe £200) fine and 6 points on my license.

Turns out my insurance was up for renewal the month before, which I was aware of, but it hadn't renewed. I naively thought all insurance auto renewed. I'd had a letter saying your insurance is due for renewal soon and they would be in touch nearer the time to sort it. Great/standard.

Never got another letter and I just forgot about it, expecting it would renew anyway.
Found out the hard way, and just had to suck it up. No idea what happened to that letter, insurance company said they sent it 🤷‍♀️

So OP, hopefully I've distracted you a bit before 9, and at least in your case you know it isn't your fault!
Just numpty me

You should be able to call them any time if for example you needed to make a claim.

Most are open at least 6 days a week or at least Saturday mornings.