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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be very upset we’ve been driving around in uninsured vehicle

272 replies

BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 16:49

Just stopped by police with young children in car, very upsetting as was accused of driving an unregistered/ uninsured vehicle.

Our car was purchased new from the official dealership 3 years ago. We’ve had two official services and been insured through legit insurers since. The number plate is wrong by one letter! All documentation has the wrong license number. However the ownership paper does state a different license number, which I assume is the correct one.

Obviously we should have picked up on the discrepancy, my only excuse is we had a newborn at the time!

The police said we’ve been driving around uninsured for 3 years and If we’d had an accident would be fully liable for damage and personal injury.

We plan to visit the dealership tomorrow but just after any advice as I feel really angry about it. I don’t understand how this could have happened and feel really angry that we’ve been driving around at risk.

I don’t think we should drive the car until they can install the correct number plate. Which is an inconvenience. I’ve also paid £650 of useless insurance.

OP posts:
BarbaraofSeville · 05/09/2021 17:52

I understand how the mistake can be made an even how coincidence would mean that the make, model and colour of the car is still correct but I can't understand how you'd never notice in 3 years that it's not right. I can't think of any combination of letters or numbers that are so similar on a 3 YO car registration plate that you wouldn't notice at some point.

Oblomov21 · 05/09/2021 17:52

Blimey!

Scarby9 · 05/09/2021 17:52

Once when I bought a new car, they offered me a choice of about 10 numberplates. None of them.had any sinificance for me so I just picked one at random, but they were all very similar to one another (consecutive numbers etc).
I assume this is what happened. The garage put one registration number on the car and attached one of the other sets of plates they had.
That does make me wonder if there is someone else driving about with the same problem - your correct numberplates and non-matching registration.

LegendaryReady · 05/09/2021 17:53

@AdobeWanKenobi

But then it would be flagged as being insured by 2 people or whatever

Not necessarily. Its not uncommon to have two policies at the same time, when selling for example. Insurers might not notice, also auto renewals etc where people take a new policy out and forget to cancel an old one.

Years ago I drove an old clio from local renault dealer.

ABC 123 Silver 1998 Clio, silver
ABD 123 Silver 1998 Clio, Silver

Both genuine cars, both sent to same dealer and both just one letter different. I used to see my twin about in town.
Now when those cars arrived at the dealers they wouldn't have plates so the dealer is then responsible for checking V5 and putting corresponding plates on the cars. Sometimes those get mixed up. It's not an uncommon mistake.

But then the police wouldn't have known they were looking at the wrong car?
RussianSpy101 · 05/09/2021 17:55

On your insurance quote, the registration matches to the vehicle. I don’t understand how this hasn’t been noticed.

Miniroofbox · 05/09/2021 17:56

But. If the police checked the reg how did it show as uninsured?

I mean. The op insured under the incorrect reg?

ILoveMyName · 05/09/2021 17:56

This is why I like living where I do. We mostly only have numbers on our plates, and most people like to 'keep' their number when they buy a new car (less so if buying 2nd hand, but still quite common). So if you don't see 'your' number on your new plate, and it doesn't match the documents (which you really do need to check, double check and triple check, OP) then you know you're right and they're wrong.

But the onus really is on you, OP - you're the legal owner of the vehicle, not the service mechanics or the MOT mechanics (something else we don't have over here - yet...) 3 years without even once checking any of the paperwork on any of the documents to do with your car? Really? We get our insurance documents out every year before renewal, just because we know we're going to be replacing them with the updated copy of the policy, and we check there aren't any errors. Haven't you been doing that for the last 3 years at least?

Your car, your responsibility I'm afraid, OP

CorrBlimeyGG · 05/09/2021 17:56

The police officer is wrong, this would not invalidate your insurance. Similar cases have been adjudicated on by the FOS, and the only way the insurer can penalise you is to deduct from any payout the difference in the premium. In this case, as the car specification and driver details were correct, there shouldn't even be a difference in premium.

Insurance does not get cancelled or invalidated for genuine mistakes.

Toddlerteaplease · 05/09/2021 17:59

I don't understand how this has happed. Surely you have to enter the registration when you renew your insurance.

SusieBob · 05/09/2021 18:01

@Batshittery

But if they 'looked you up on the system', it wouldn't have highlighted anything amiss, as the number on your car has insurance. Also, once the police identify that you don't have insurance, they seize the car. You are not allowed to just drive away with no insurance
The car could have come back as being unregistered - i.e. the reg number on the car isn't actually valid or it could have come back but not matching the make/model of the car.

I suspect it's the first, if the OP has had to phone up to get insurance as that would imply the online systems have flagged up the licence plate as invalid and when the OP called the person on the phone has overridden the check.

SusieBob · 05/09/2021 18:02

Although actually that doesn't explain how the OP has managed to tax the car...

It's all very odd. Don't get how you could be so utterly careless to do it for 3 years.

Miniroofbox · 05/09/2021 18:04

And surely you’d ask, once the can’t insure you came up the second time, you’d ask what the issue was?

theclockticksslowly · 05/09/2021 18:05

@Scarby9

Once when I bought a new car, they offered me a choice of about 10 numberplates. None of them.had any sinificance for me so I just picked one at random, but they were all very similar to one another (consecutive numbers etc). I assume this is what happened. The garage put one registration number on the car and attached one of the other sets of plates they had. That does make me wonder if there is someone else driving about with the same problem - your correct numberplates and non-matching registration.
This was what I was wondering about too - there could be a same make/model/colour car going around with ‘your’ plates. If you put what should be your real reg into the gov website that checks insurance etc does anything come up for it?
StatisticallyChallenged · 05/09/2021 18:07

This happened to us too - although thankfully we realised two days later. Which was actually a blessing because the car had a fault which they were trying to say they'd try to fix...not so fast, I don't own this heap of junk!

In our case the dealer had several identical cars on the forecourt, and they had all been registered in a block (it was a pre reg car) so their number plates were only one digit different. I'd taken out finance which meant that I'd seen the car on day 1, come home without it while I waited for finance to process, electronically signed everything, and arranged insurance based on the number plate which we had been given. All the docs were for the same plate, and the car was already taxed.

Went to pick car up, drove it home. Went out later and it went in to "get me home" mode and wouldn't rev properly. Limped it home. Phoned dealer, told to bring it in. As I got in our other car to drive out (DH driving the dodgy new car) I happened to look in the rear view mirror and see the licence plate on the new car which I suddenly realised had the last letter different to the one I had been given. First 6 were the same, but the last was V when it should have been D.

When we got to the dealer the care I was meant to have (and that I'd test driven) was sitting on the forecourt. They originally tried to claim I'd have to let them try to fix the dodgy one until I pointed out that legally that car was fuck all to do with me - I hadn't bought it, didn't have the V5 for it, hadn't taken out finance for it, hadn't insured it. Now, can I have the keys for my actual car, please?

So it does happen.

Nocutenamesleft · 05/09/2021 18:08

How did the police notice the wrong number plate?

Because if they entered the so called ‘incorrect’ one on the car. Which is the EXACT same one as the one on your ‘incorrect’ insurance. It matches up?!?

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou · 05/09/2021 18:17

@Nocutenamesleft

How did the police notice the wrong number plate?

Because if they entered the so called ‘incorrect’ one on the car. Which is the EXACT same one as the one on your ‘incorrect’ insurance. It matches up?!?

They probably did a full check where they checked the VIN against the plates displayed and that’s where they would see the discrepancy. OP has already said they weren’t pulled over because of the plate but because of suspicious behaviour.
Original poster
BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 18:19

OK I get the message! It’s my fault for not noticing. It’s one of those things, where the human eye has not picked up the difference between license numbers as they are really similar looking.

I feel quite a few people are being really harsh and lacking in empathy. There have been lots of points where computer systems and people could have picked it up, but haven’t. So it’s taken the police to notice, which was quite stressful and upsetting tbh.

I do believe it’s the dealership ultimately at fault. The majority of the paperwork is wrong and they put the wrong plates on. They’ve also continued merrily servicing our car inputting the wrong information. They actually processed our tax for us as we purchased the car. It’s on automatic renewal - we don’t get any paperwork- just a direct debit.

I will chalk it up to experience. We paid a premium to go with this garage because of their excellent reputation so I do feel really let down tbh. They are probably one of the oldest dealers in the U.K., I’m not going to name them, but they trade on their reputation and family name. They are very well known in our region. We went with them because we felt we could tryst them as we had a newborn, had no roof on our house at the time. So life was stressful enough.

We will arrange to have plates and insurance changed, then chalk it up to experience. That you can’t trust anyone and to triple check everything themselves.

OP posts:
Original poster
BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 18:20

*Triple check everything ourselves

OP posts:
Original poster
BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 18:22

@StatisticallyChallenged that’s an awesome story!

OP posts:
Bluepop09 · 05/09/2021 18:22

I'm confused. Are the actual number plates that are currently on your car wrong? That would explain why you've not noticed because how would you unless you initially spotted the different (correct) plate on the V5C.

I think other posters are thinking your current plates show one thing and the paperwork for insurance etc shows another......

Original poster
BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 18:23

@Bluepop09 yep you’re spot on!

OP posts:
Nocutenamesleft · 05/09/2021 18:24

@BlueFairiesinthesky

Plenty of posters have asked

But how did the police find out?

BeaucoupFish · 05/09/2021 18:24

The police don’t notice them as such, their cars are fitted with ANPR cameras which flag up no tax / insurance / MOT etc, the same as the vans that go round checking whether vehicles are taxed

DynamoKev · 05/09/2021 18:24

Agreed OP you have had a hard time from a lot of people who haven’t properly thought it through.

The amount of people thinking there is some magical way various things happen makes me laugh.

Nocutenamesleft · 05/09/2021 18:25

Because the car is insured by the incorrect plates. So insurance and plates would match up.

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