Hit by uninsured driver - police dropped case

[Rosecottage888]

I was hit by an uninsured driver back in February. The girl was only18 and had only passed her test a week before. Her dad took over the correspondence (turns out I knew him from school) and gave me the insurance details. Hire car was sorted, repairs sorted then I get a call from my insurance company telling me they were not insured so everything would need to be covered by my insurance.
Police were involved from the start, I sent them all the forms back but heard nothing, so chased them 6 weeks later and they confirmed they missed my original email.
Police called a couple of months ago to say the driver failed to responded to confirm their details so they would be persuing them through court for this as well as driving without insurance.
Now I've had another email to say sorry but we won't be taking this any further as our deadline for charging the driver has elapsed. Elapsed because they missed my original email! I'm so angry. Im now out of pocket because my insurance has had to cover the courtesy car as well as the damage (over £3k) so my premiums will go up, and she gets off scott free and can carry on driving around.

Not even asking for advice really just venting. So fucking angry.

@Betternottoask the law is such:

What happens if someone drives car without insurance?
Penalties for driving without insurance

You could receive a fixed penalty of £300 and six penalty points on your licence if you are caught driving a vehicle that you are not insured to drive. If the case goes to court you could get an unlimited fine and be disqualified from driving.

Also there are 2 issues here
1/ uninsured driver and
2/ uninsured car.

Given most of the replies on this thread, I'm surprised anybody has 3rd party liability car insurance. What's the point? If you hit someone while uninsured you're apparently the victim, as long as the person you hit has their own insurance!

And never mind if as a result of you hitting someone else their premiums go up. Doesn't bother you because you've got no premed anyway.

Am wondering though. If an uninsured driver hit you and you were out of pocket - or worse, seriously injured - would you think the other driver was a "poor learner driver"? Or would you prefer to uses the phrase "the uninsured driver driving illegally"?

And if the same driver hit you, with or without insurance, would you write to the police to tell them not to put any points on their license because they're only young?

It makes no sense whatsoever.

Sue her through small claims. Will cost you £35. Send her a letter before action first outlining your case and the amount you’re requesting.

Small claims court costs are minimal. Less than £500.

I'd approach Dad first though and tell him you don't want to have to persue through SCC but will have to if he doesn't pay up.

What a mess.

She should lose her license for driving without insurance.

Driving without insurance is really serious. Would people be so blasé if the OP had been hurt - it's just good luck she wasn't.

What amount? The op isn't going to be out of pocket it's just inconvenience and time and that wouldn't be a financial claim in the small claims court

Driving without insurance is a Criminal Offence. It's not like a minor parking offence, as so many here seem to consider it. 🙄

Wishing you luck with pursuing this,OP, and you have to wonder whether the police actually investigate anything properly these days!

I'd follow up all the advice you've been given and attack it from all angles, complaint police, the bureau, follow up with insurance company very strongly, still try small claims. £105 for up to £3k. It's easy, no solicitors fees and then at least make you feel you'd been proactive.

I completely disagree with betternotask.

My dh tried to be nice to a learner driver and wasn't gonna claim against her then she flipped it and took him to court for her damage and injury. She had drove into him. He won thankfully.

OP could this be an option for you? Could you take her to court? Your insurance company might even take control of it. If not a no win no fee type company might help

Ugh that's outrageous and still not resolved 7 months down the line? You have my sympathy.

My son was hit by an uninsured driver and we went through the M.I.B, motor insurance bureau. They recovered all the costs for him.

I’d be really angry at the police tbh. As they didn’t deal with it properly you don’t know (and will never know) the full story. It could be that she is a terrible person who deliberately doesn’t bother insuring her car. But it could be that she thought she had insurance and has evidence to show it was someone else’s fuck up that meant she didn’t. At 18 I completely relied on my parents to sort insurance, and I’d bet good money that the majority of 18yo are exactly the same, particularly those who are still in school.

You will be in no worse position than if she was insured. That’s the whole point of the Motor Insurance Bureau.

At 18 she’s an adult and should have organized insurance. What’s all this about hiding behind her dad? He wasn’t the driver. I agree with you OP, she should be punished for what was and is a serious crime. She could have hurt you, your child, hit someone else… As it is, it sounds like because of her stupidity, you’ve had no end of hassle and are now (at least temporarily) out of pocket. What an appalling system. I’d want some
form of recompense too.
Ignore the haters and victim blamers here. You could have written that her crashing into you left you in a wheelchair and there’d still be the idiots on here trying to imply that was somehow your fault 🤔

It appears the insurers aren't going to take action against the driver involved. This suggests they think she can't afford to pay. If that is the case, OP would be throwing good money after bad if she takes her to court. And, as I've pointed out previously, you won't get a no win, no fee arrangement for a small claim. If this was a personal injury case, no win, no fee might be appropriate, but OP appears to have been uninjured.

The MIB helped me when i was hit by an uninsured driver, he was also an illegal immigrant as well.
He was sent a court summons by the poliice and unsurprisingly did not appear. They could not have been less interested if they tried.
I had legal cover through my insurance and although it took a few years I did get my expenses back. I'm horrified at how often this happens.

@Betternottoask Ha i bet you'd not be so charitable if it were your car she hit.

There are 2m un insured drivers on UK roads & the only way to get that number down is a min 12month ban and prison for repeat offenders, same as drink driving.

I'd go small claims court, its a small fee and you can do it yourself, at least then, even if she has little money, she will have a constant reminder of her stupidity.

@Betternottoask - seriously? Driving without insurance is not an inconsequential, victimless crime. The police have completely cocked up but you think it's acceptable to have a go at the OP for wanting there to be consequences for the uninsured driver?

Some people seem to have an inflated idea of the penalty for driving without insurance. Unless the police take it to court, it carries a fixed penalty of £300 and 6 penalty points. For a case like this, it would only go to court if the driver elected not to accept the fixed penalty. If convicted, she would then get a fine of 125%-175% of her weekly income (reduced if she pleads guilty) and the court would consider disqualifying her for up to 6 months or 8 penalty points.

I used to work in traffic prosecutions and believe me the team dealing with your collision would be just as annoyed as you are. This doesn’t happen very often thankfully you have been very unlucky. It’s not your fault of course, a series of things would have led to the limitation of proceedings being passed. I’m not blaming you at all but with the power of hindsight if you had chased after two weeks rather than the six weeks you waited it would have made a difference (I know you shouldn’t have to chase at all) Regardless of any prosecution the insurance situation remains unchanged and it’s a MIB job. I worked for 12 years in collisions and have seen some horrendous things, I completely understand how you feel as I’ve had extensive damage done to my own car by someone who failed to stop but you weren’t injured, a car is just a car and your insurance has done it’s job. The whataboutery regards injury is just that and your insurance or the MIB would have dealt with it also. Unfortunately with collisions the innocent party is inconvenienced the most which is partly why after 12 years I changed jobs.

Sue her through small claims. Will cost you £35. Send her a letter before action first outlining your case and the amount you’re requesting

What is she claiming for? Does nobody understand that she has recouped all her losses through her insurance company who has a claim to recoup their outlay from MIB.

My dh tried to be nice to a learner driver and wasn't gonna claim against her then she flipped it and took him to court for her damage and injury. She had drove into him. He won thankfully.OP could this be an option for you? Could you take her to court? Your insurance company might even take control of it. If not a no win no fee type company might help

And understandably you were outraged, inconvenienced and thankfully eventually was vindicated. BUT this didn't happen to the OP, did it? Again, what us she taking the driver to court for? The police has dropped the case (whatever the reason, rightly or wrongly), she has recouped all her losses, suffered no injury and the matter has been dealt with. I'm at a loss as to what she is going to gain bringing a civil case except more frustration and inconvenience to herself.

But it could be that she thought she had insurance and has evidence to show it was someone else’s fuck up that meant she didn’t. At 18 I completely relied on my parents to sort insurance, and I’d bet good money that the majority of 18yo are exactly the same, particularly those who are still in school.You will be in no worse position than if she was insured. That’s the whole point of the Motor Insurance Bureau.

This!

Ignore the haters and victim blamers here. You could have written that her crashing into you left you in a wheelchair and there’d still be the idiots on here trying to imply that was somehow your fault 🤔

Who's hating? OP has come onto a public forum and has opened it up to discussion. No-one has suggested anything is her own fault, that she deserved what happened to her or that she shouldn't have recouped all losses. Show me where ANYONE on this thread has said or implied this. Why are you catastrophising? Was the OP injured at all, never mind end up in a wheelchair, thankfully so why even say something like just to incite people into even more outrage?

It appears the insurers aren't going to take action against the driver involved. This suggests they think she can't afford to pay. If that is the case, OP would be throwing good money after bad if she takes her to court. And, as I've pointed out previously, you won't get a no win, no fee arrangement for a small claim. If this was a personal injury case, no win, no fee might be appropriate, but OP appears to have been uninjured.

This.

Seriously, there are worse things happening in the world right now - people losing jobs and houses, struggling to feed and clothe kids, vulnerable people scared to turn their heating on, people suffering through serious, life-threatening, debiltating injuries (yes, some caused by RTAs) and illnesses, innocent people having to unwillingly fight in and defend themselves in terrible wars, people getting killed on an hourly basis, people getting stabbed, shot, murdered on our own streets and abroad. Yet nobody can just think 'wow, that's really unfortunate and must have been frustrating,time consuming and inconvenient' for you and its dreadful the police fucked up but it's been 7 months, you've recouped everything you possible can, be thankful nobody was injured, a car is just a car and accidents happen every single minute of every single day and you were fortunate enough to escape uninjured...move on ffs

The police didn’t drop the case, there is a limitation of proceedings for the offences of no insurance and failing to provide the driver details of 6 months. So if the collision was 4th Feb the offences need to be laid (court date booked stating offences charged with) by 3rd Aug. This deadline has passed although the fail to name usually has an extra 28 days as the offence occurred on day 28 from the date of the letter they didn’t respond to.

Have you checked online whether the car is taxed? No insurance = No tax.

My DM’s car was hit by an uninsured driver with no tax. Ambulance attended. He gave a false address. He subsequently came to my mums house and threatened her if she took the complaint to the police. I then phoned the police because I believed they were dealing with the case. They literally shrugged their shoulders and said they didn’t know where he was, so too bad. The police don’t care and mum was 75 at the time. Expect t the minimum. That’s what you get.

He gave false details so it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility to believe that they probably didn’t submit the V5C to the dvla with his details. So when a check is done on the police National computer it will return the previous owner’s details but stating that they have advised the dvla that they’re no longer the keeper. If the previous owner can’t assist how do you suggest that the driver is located by the police @TizerorFizz ?