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Original poster

Fined for an oversight - to appeal or just pay up?

15 replies

lucyellensmum · 23/01/2008 15:39

Yesterday the police followed DP to work, for the simple reason, he has an oldish white van - no really, they were checking white vans!

The check came up as not MOTd so they checked the insurance too. The van IS MOTd and we have the certificate. Unfortunately the insurance expired last friday!! This was a genuine oversight on DPs behalf, i even remember him saying we have to pay van insurance at the end of this month (he thought 27th Jan).

This has led to a £200 fine!!

The ironic thing is, the policeman said to DP, if it had come back as MOTd he wouldnt have bothered to check the insurance!!!

Is this worth appealing or should we just pay up, we dont want to incurr extra cost

OP posts:

bran · 23/01/2008 15:43

I think you should pay up. There's no basis to appeal as far as I can see as he wasn't insured. It's unlucky, but would have been far worse if he had an accident while uninsured.

Some insurance companies give a couple of weeks cover if you are late paying the premium when renewing, could you check if his insurance company does that? If so, then technically he was covered and you might be able to appeal.

claricebeansmum · 23/01/2008 15:45

Pay up.
Ignorance is no defence.

TheMuppetMuggle · 23/01/2008 15:47

I agree with Bran you should pay up, as oversight on your DP, and it would of been worse if he had an accident and he was uninsured.
The Insurance company i work for give you 2 days to pay premium in full or deposit or will cancel as not taken up.

flowerybeanbag · 23/01/2008 15:50

Pay up. If 'I forgot' or 'I didn't check' was a defence no one would pay fines, they'd all say that.

Original poster

lucyellensmum · 23/01/2008 15:56

i resent the implication that DP is just trying to get off with it. I just feel that £200 is excessive. I do agree that it would have been really bad if he were uninsured as this happened to my dad once, he was hit by uninsured driver and basically had to cover his damage himself as he was only 3rd party. But i just wondered if there were any chance of leeway considering it was only 5 DAYS overdue!

OP posts:

hana · 23/01/2008 16:01

does your insurance not automatically roll over? I'd check this out with your insurers first

bran · 23/01/2008 16:03

Nobody implied anything about your DP. It obviously is a genuine error, but at the same time he was uninsured and so the fine is valid. I bet both of you will be extra vigilent about renewal dates in the future.

I think the number of days that he was inadvertently uninsured for is fairly irrelevant. If you are without insurance and have an accident it really doesn't matter if your insurance lapsed 10 hour before or 10 years before. I suppose a very kindly cop might have let your dh off with a warning, but he would have been bending the law to do so.

Original poster

lucyellensmum · 23/01/2008 16:05

not sure hana, we should check that out, he has now insured the van as of last night, but have had to get the insurers to accept payment next week as we are waiting on a payment and have no money at the moment, they were fine with that, but dp didnt mention getting tugged so i think he should have, as they may well have bridged the gap seeing as it was such a short time.

OP posts:

pukkapatch · 23/01/2008 16:06

payup. cheaper in th elong run

Twiglett · 23/01/2008 16:08

you have no grounds to appeal

driving an uninsured vehicle is against the law even if it was an oversight

Original poster

lucyellensmum · 23/01/2008 16:08

bran, the policeman said that it was only the MOT that prompted him to check but once it was on the record he coudlnt do anything about it It always used to be that if you had gone over a week with anything like that they would say, make sure you produce docs within a week and let you off - it seems they need the revenue these days.

It was out of order not being insured and DP was mortified, but he has been under a lot of stress lately and thought he was covered.

OP posts:

flowerybeanbag · 23/01/2008 16:09

I don't think anyone was insinuating your DP did it deliberately. But obviously a tiered fine system that depends how many days overdue you are wouldn't work, and as bran says, you could have an accident hours after it's expired and it would be no less serious that one that happened months afterwards.

bundle · 23/01/2008 16:09

if you don't pay up i think they can send in the bailiffs. who can then sell the car or crush it.

Freckle · 23/01/2008 16:40

Thing is lots of people could say it was an oversight when they had no intention of renewing their insurance. Just be grateful it's a £200 and not a much higher bill for damage or injury if your dh had had the misfortune to cause an accident.

TheMuppetMuggle · 24/01/2008 10:21

I don't think anyone is saying he's trying to get out of it.
You always get your renewal details 21 days before renewal and gives you options of how to pay. If you paid in full previous year it doesn't automatically roll over like it would if you were paying via instalments.

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