KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
been aware. We will have to persuade the court that you were entitled to rely on your mother and effectively there was no need for you to double/triple check the documents.
Q A Q A
Two years ago, my family bought me a vehicle for Christmas and my mother has been paying for my insurance. Recently I have been pulled over by the police for not having a valid policy in place and due
to this my vehicle has been seized. This is the first I became aware of this; I had no idea at the time, but it seems my mother forgot to update her payment details when she got a new bank card.
I had no idea that I was not insured to drive my vehicle at the time and as this isn’t technically my fault, is there any- thing I can do?
Very much so. Driving without insurance is a strict liability offence, meaning that if you have got insurance you are not guilty, and if you don’t have insurance you are guilty. It is very black and white.
But you may have a Special Reasons argument available. A Special Reason is where somebody, like yourself, could be guilty of an offence but if the court have the discretion not to impose points.
Specifically, in regard to driving without insurance the argument must be on the basis that you had a genuine misapprehension that you were insured, and secondly that misapprehension was based on reasonable grounds.
The first part of that would simply be you giving evidence that you genuinely thought you were insured. I would also like to have a look at the conversations you have had with the police at the roadside to reaffirm that.
The second part, that this belief was reasonable, will very much depend on the facts of the case. We would argue that you have been misled by your mother into thinking that you were insured, as she was responsible for making the payments and it was her fault that she forgot. But we will need to examine the conversations you had, who arranged and was checking the policy and whether you ought to have
DECEMBER 2020
I have received a Notice of Intended Prosecution for driving without due care and attention in a lease vehicle. I have no idea what I may have done, I have no recollection of any incident. Is there a way I can
find out the nature of the allegation?
I have also received the notice 26 days after the date of the offence. I have been reading online that the police have to serve this within 14 days of the offence, is this correct?
The easiest way to find out about the nature of the allegation is to call the police department that sent you the Notice of Intended Prosecution. But be careful. Anything you say potentially could be used
against you. So, if you make any admissions to, for example, careless driving or causing damage, then they can use that as an admission against you in Court. I would advise instructing a Solicitor to make those enquiries for you.
It is difficult to advise whether you have a defence and what you could be facing until we know the nature of the allegation, and I therefore also cannot answer with any certainty whether or not the Notice of Intended Prosecution is out of time. In usual circumstances a Notice must be served within 14 days. But if this was a lease vehicle the original Notice may well have gone to the lease company. The police only have to serve the notice to the registered keeper within 14 days, not to the driver. It is also important to note that there are a number of exceptions to that rule, including if an accident has occurred (that the driver knew about) or if the police addressed it to the last known address of the registered keeper/driver.
Usually with Notices of Intended Prosecution there is a request for information as well, asking you to nominate the driver. You will need to respond to that. Failure to do so could see you prosecuted for failing to provide information, an offence carrying six points and up to £1000 in fines.
After that, when we have found out more about the allegation, we will need to discuss the next steps. It may be innocuous and resolvable by way of compensation if it is minor damage, or by way of a driver improvement course. If it is more serious, it could involve police interviews and even court proceedings. It needs to be handled with care.
This impartial advice has been provided by Patterson Law Solicitors 01626 359800
www.pattersonlaw.co.uk
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