I'm in trouble

[drintrouble]

Changed name as don't want to be found out.
I'm in trouble. Can anyone give me some encouragement/advice how to go about it.
Last winter I have passed my driving test. And 2 weeks later crashed my car into somebody else- totally my fault. Came out, gave the other driver, a woman, my details, all the info. She did not give me anything of hers, except, her husband's telephone number. I took a video and few pictures of her car. The only damage that I could see was broken plastic on the taillight. Rang her husband same evening, we spoke about the damage, but, strangely, he kept repeating that he was driving at the time of the accident! There were no other people in the car, just the woman driver. In the phone conversation the man said that the damage was not bad, he could buy light on ebay and, if I gave him the money, we could do it privately. I wasn't sure about it, but agreed. He rang me next morning and demanded £4,000. I was absolutely certain that that was over the top and asked if he could take his car to my mechanic. He refused. Then I said I prefer to go through my insurance.
When I checked my insurance documents, I found out it ran out literally 2 days before the accident. Totally my fault, but because if lockdowns and instructor shortages and tests not being available for months, I have bought insurance just for a month before my test, and completely forgot about it.
I have panicked, rang the man, told him that I am refusing to pay £4k and asked him to come with realistic price. Never told him that I did not have insurance.
Nothing happened for a year and yesterday my husband, who is registered on this car, have received a letter from an insurance company asking him to answer questions about the accident, mentioning the female driver- me.
I know I am in trouble BIG TIME, but how would you act? Tell the truth, but insist that the other car was driven by the female- letter doesn't say who the other driver was. I know that something dodgy is going on (from my side as well!), but what to do now? I have a female driver after the accident on a video, when she was talking to her husband. She couldn't leave the site of the accident fast enough.
Please, don't kick me for what I did, but I have thought £4k is excessive and have panicked about the insurance.
What would you do?

I’d do this and submit the video so they have immediate proof

Nobodies dead and you won't be going to prison. Don't stress yourself too much x

I’m sorry I just don’t believe the 2 day thing. When any insurance is up for renewal - car, house etc they contact you well before the date it runs out to ask if you want to renew. Even if you just took out one month new driver insurance they would contact you, to warn you your it was about to run out and because they’d want to sign you up for an annual contract.

If the insurance company wrote to your DH then it’s his policy. If he wasn’t driving uninsured it sounds like you hadn’t got your own correct insurance on his policy.

The only thing you can do is be honest and take the consequences.

Also, I'm surprised their insurance is getting involved because they have tight timescales about when they have to be notified of the accident. Usually the same or next day.

You are going to have to be honest because lying and saying you weren't in the car is never going to have a good outcome. Your insurance company knows now and no backtracking will change that. But something is clearly dodgy their side too. Just make sure you provide your footage of no man in the car when it comes to it. You are in trouble, but it sounds like they are too.

You have video evidence of her car and the damage. They do not know either way if you have video evidence of the woman driving it rather than the man. Just tell the truth and reply that you gave your insurance details as per the requirements and you have the video evidence of the car, the damage and the driver (You dont have to elaborate on which ;-). State that you did not witness any man in the car and are willing to go to court with your evidence to back this up.

Technically you are telling the truth and they will shit themselves as the video evidence is irrefutable.......even if they havent seen it.

Are you 100% certain the letter from their insurance is legit? Not too difficult to doctor up documents that look real.

I know someone who got away with no MOT when they had an insurance claim literally by keeping mouth shut but I’m not confident this will apply here. The claim will be made against your insurance at the time which was none. So the least you’ll be done for is no insurance. I think it’s time to come clean but drag that bastard down with you and produce your evidence that he wasn’t even driving. Teach him to be a greedy twat.

The most obvious thing is that his wife was not insured, or a banned driver, or had never passed her test, or was drunk/ on drugs, or he had no insurance either for the car.

But the tale you are telling about your insurance doesn't make sense.

I've never ever seen insurance available for one month if you are already driving the car. Unless of course you were using a driving school car all of the time.
I do know it's possible to buy short term insurance to cover another driver on an existing policy.

The husband was trying it on as a simple taillight does not cost £4K.

I agree with setting out honestly what happened but (assuming you have photographic evidence to support this) emphasise that it was a very minor bump with visible damage only to plastic, easily replaceable part.
That you exchanged details and that they originally said they would just fix it but you were confused as they stated a male driver when it was a female.
That you then received a ridiculous request for 4k that was out of step with any visible damage so you requested they go through insurance.
That you then did not hear again and assumed they had repaired the vehicle.

I know someone who got away with no MOT when they had an insurance claim literally by keeping mouth shut but I’m not confident this will apply here.

You can check is any car has an MOT simply by putting the reg into an online database.

I would almost be tempted to go to the Police, especially if when you did take out the insurance you explained about the accident. However, my guess is you didn’t tell the insurance company, so I would either seek expert legal advice from someone such as Nick Freeman aka Mr Loophole or do as @Testina advises.

Why did they contact your DH, though? If the other couple have your details, why is their insurance not contacting you?

Your new policy is void if you have bumpy declared an accident so do get that updated as you’re not going to want anything else to go wrong on top of all this. It will cost you more money but if you don’t you’re effectively not insured

When I checked my insurance documents, I found out it ran out literally 2 days before the accident.

Really? Surely the company emailed you with a reminder.

Mine emails me with the new premium at least a month before it's due.

Something fishy is going on but some of your side of it is questionable too.

This is not a 'reverse' is it? (Excuse the motoring pun.)

*not

bumpy?! Ha ha

I think they have to legally give you your renewal 3wks before

Another vote for this response. OP, do this. Just stay honest, play it straight, and don't overthink it. Don't game play, don't try and make "moves" or predict what "move" they might make, simply stick to the truth.

I'd be honest too.

It was a woman driving and show the evidence.

State your conversation of him asking for £4000

Then he should have contacted his insurance then when you weren't willing yo pay 4k.

She only bought insurance for a month to cover her until she did her test.

Short-term learner driver insurance. Which, as far as I'm aware, wouldn't have covered her to drive unsupervised. Plus, it became invalid when she passed her test. So she wouldn't have been properly insured anyway.

Nothing happened for a year and yesterday my husband, who is registered on this car, have received a letter from an insurance company asking him to answer questions about the accident, mentioning the female driver- me.

None of this makes any sense.

If it's your insurance and he is a named driver, the letters would come to you.
It's 2023. Companies will not be asking the man about an incident his wife was involved in when she was driving.

Also, if you have an outstanding claim and a legal case against you (IF the other driver is really involving their insurers and it's not a fake letter and a bluff) then your current insurance may be void. Which means anyone driving your car is not insured.

There are lots of things about your post that raise eyebrows.

If you want help here, you need to be 100% honest and I don't think you are.

Too many things don't add up and us more experienced drivers can spot those pretty fast.

The absolute worst thing to happen to you will be 6 points
Lose your licence
Fine
Expensive insurance for next 5ish years . Which some of that you wont be able to drive as you wont have a licence.

As far as I cant tell you options are

1. answer questions truly and take the consequences.

1. Convince the other party to drop their claim due to probable issues with the female driving. I'm assuming as hes trying to say he was driving

And I would assume they want to avoid insurance fruad on their part

Haven't read the full thread... But given the man is trying to say he was driving... Could there be a possibility his wife wasn't insured either?

When I checked my insurance documents, I found out it ran out literally 2 days before the accident. Totally my fault, but because if lockdowns and instructor shortages and tests not being available for months, I have bought insurance just for a month before my test, and completely forgot about it.

I don't believe you. This doesn't make sense.

Sorry.

If you had a test date and then took out a month's insurance to cover the test, you'd have set that up quite near to the test date and would know it was for a month only.

So using lockdown, tests etc not being available is illogical. Because you didn't take out insurance months before your test and then forget to renew it.
You took it out close to the test for a month.

Don't know if there's anyone that's mentioned this or can let me know if this is wrong but..
Can't your husband say he wasn't driving but doesn't know who was? Other people can drive the car if they have fully comp insurance sometimes so technically not having anyone else on the insurance wouldn't mean someone had driven illegally.
The best course of action would of course tell the truth, and you have videos of the damage. He may have damaged the car further and is now trying to claim for all of it. I would tell them you are 1000% sure though that a woman was driving. I find it bizarre that this has come up a year later. Sounds like the other party is trying something dodgy.