Car insurance and student...

[NonnoMum]

Not sure if this is the right topic, but here goes...

DSS is away at University. He took his car with him, but then decided it was too expensive to insure. So he declared it of road and stopped the payments (or so we thought). We thought he left it on campus and then would get it re-insured when he needed to drive it again.

HOWEVER, he's just told us that it has been trashed and we thought he should let security know on campus. He then told us that it was parked on a road (so effectively uninsured).

Any advice over the implications of this? We know there is no hope for the car, but could he get in trouble for having an uninsured car parked on the road? If so, what type of trouble? Points on licence? Criminal record? Worried.

The law changed earlier this year to make it an offence to own an uninsured vehicle unless it has been declared as off road. He could face a fixed penalty of £100, the car couild be clamped, impounded or destroyed and he could be prosecuted with a possible maximum fine of £1000. In the circumstances you describe I would imagine a fixed penalty would be the most likely outcome.

Having said that, if he simply stopped the payments without cancelling the policy he may still be insured but owe the insurance company some money.

Thank you for replying. We were worried that he might end up with a criminal record or points on his licence or something.
We did advise him to declare it off-road but of course, these young people like to do things their own way!