Stay
insured: new penalties for vehicles without motor
insurance
In
our NEWS item posted in December 2010, Chris Hunt
Cooke reported Continuous Insurance Enforcement
("CIE") was provided for in the Road Safety
Act 2006 but had not previously been implemented
but it was planned to introduce this early in 2011.
Unfortunately the date when this measure will start
had not been clarified at that time - well it has
now!
Chris reports today that if you have forgotten about
CIE, it is a fair bet that most people have. Here
Chris provides a useful update.
Continuous Insurance Enforcement
We
hear that the first letters are now being sent out
under this scheme. As a reminder, a new offence
has been introduced which has no direct relationship
with the existing “no insurance” offence.
The new offence is being the registered keeper of
a vehicle which is not insured and which is not
covered by one of the exceptions to the requirement,
such as having been subject to a SORN. This does
not depend on the vehicle being seen on the road,
the offence will be based on the comparison between
the DVLA database and the Motor Insurance Database.
The first stage of enforcement will be an enquiry
letter, pointing out the apparent offence, which
will give an opportunity for the situation to be
regularised. If it is not, the next stage is a fixed
penalty of £100, reduced to £50 if paid
promptly. If unpaid, the vehicle can be seized or
clamped if found on the road, and the keeper can
be taken to court where the maximum penalty is a
fine of £1000. The offence does not carry
points. It is expected that most people will respond
to the warning letters or fixed penalty, and only
about 5% will eventually be prosecuted.
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The fight against uninsured vehicles
Latest public estimates are that around 1.5
million of all UK motorists drive uninsured.
These drivers cost the UK about £500
million annually, which adds up to an average
cost of an extra £30 per car insurance
policy.
The police already seize about 500 uninsured
vehicles every day. To help combat uninsured
driving even further, when the new law is
introduced it will result in:
| o |
fines
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prosecutions
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clamping
of uninsured vehicles that have not
declared Statutory Off Road Notification
(SORN) |
Records
held by DVLA will be compared with those on
the Motor Insurance Database (MID).From
early 2011, if it appears from the database
comparison that a vehicle has no insurance
or no SORN, a letter will be sent to the registered
keeper.
The Motor Insurers Database can be checked
online to ensure that your car is correctly
recorded at www.askmid.com |
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