Hmm. No BMW's here. Let 'em all off I say.
Why is motor insurance so expensive? The last time i bought a car they wanted more for the insurance than the car cost. The cost of insurance seems to have gone up a lot over recent years.
Jason: Chav monster. £100 fine, or £200 if he was wearing a Burberry cap at the time of the offence. 6 points, banned from driving for 3 years.
Mohammed: Geniune misunderstanding. £50 fine, 6 points.
Charlene: Sounds as though she knew the insurance had run out, so has to take some of the blame, even though I feel sorry for her. £200 fine, 8 points.
Patrick: £1000 fine, disqualification.
John: Discharge, 6 points. Off licence manager to be shot at dawn, the bastard.
It's September 11.
Or that's the excuse, anyway. The truth is, more profits for insurance company execs!
I'd pretty much go along with Chubby Bat's suggestions - is the employer at all liable for John's failure as I presume it's his van?
All except 'E' throw the book at em with a vengeance? everybody gets reminders from every insurance co. that ever existed ( should nudge the minds of people aboute other neccessary paperwork) B) is already working illegally deport him ASAP?
John: assuming its a company vehicle, then hes been a little careless after 3 months of not at least asking for sight of the certificate, but minimal punishment dischage and minimal points - or mitigate them away if allowed.
Patrick - perisstent offender - throw bookcase at him - max disqual + fine. Might not have any affect as its only 18months since last offence.
Charlene - deliberate - as she can't afford the insurance anyway - disqual + min fine.
Jason : disqual + £40 fine
Mohammend - a little more difficult but as he hasn't got a license (and I presume if he did get on and got 6 points he'd be disqual anyhow) - but disqual
Pity E pleaded guilty - although maybe you could strike out that plea and find him not guilty, he had reasonable expectation that his employer had provided him with suitable vehicle and cover, and you'd be penalising the wrong person....
D max everything
ABC all disqual, A deliberate not got any £400, B ignorance no excuse, C couldnt be bothered - well tough, its a privelidge to drive not a right, £500
ok above was a bit disjointed but hopefully you get the idea, any custody available? A and D certainly getting my vote....
Jason, 1 year ban and must produce a valid insurance certificate before being issued a driving licence, no fine.(waste of time)
Mohamed, 1 year ban and £50 fine for saying that he did not know that insurance was obligitory.
Charlene, If the old insurance is produced and corroborates the story, licence held by the court until a valid insurance certificate is produced, no fine no ban.
Patrick 1 year ban and must produce a valid insurance certificate to get his licence back.
John, discharge, and a £5000 fine for the owner of the vehicle
A - Fine him, miss the points off. Why? Because then he might go get a full licence so he can get insurance. Put enough points on it to tot him, and he'll be back in front of you next week for the same thing, since he'll not be able to get a licence.
B - ignorance no defence. Fine him, make him go get a full licence. Make it clear he's caught again, big trouble.
C - sorry, that's deliberate non-insurance. Disqual, but go easy on the fine.
D - pisstaker. Throw the book at him and the bench as well.
E - discharge; he was uninsured but as other people said he wasn't responsible for renewing the insurance.
Why is car insurance so expensive?
Well. Lets see;
1. Cars are expensive, repairing them bonkersly so. Recently my car was rammed by a tailgater. Rear bumper, numberplate, one exhaust. Total repair bill was over 1500 quid.
2. Insurance companies provarocate. We ended up having to summons the other party's insurer, which added another couple of hundred quid to the bill. If they'd settled sooner, it wouldn't have cost so much. It wasn't like it was a hard-to-decide case... the minute they got a CC summons they went "ok, we'll pay out"
3. Something over 5% of drivers are uninsured. Quite a lot of the premiums go towards the uninsured driver fund - the DfT says 30 quid a premium, but I suspect that's on the low side. Oh, and since those 5% are in a group massively more likely to have accidents, the chances are if you're in a crash and you have insurance, the other guy won't have. Mostly because they get away with it.
4. The main reason; The stockmarket is bad performer. The insurance companies normally take the premium money and put it in the market until they need it. Unfortunately, over the last few years they've made losses... hence in order to remain afloat, they have to charge more.
A) Jason. He's a chancer. Fine him £200 6 points and ban him for 6 months.
b) Mohammed. Crap excuse - when you come to a new country, you should look up basic things like driving. Give him 6 points and a fine.
c) Charlene. Fine and points again. she can't plead ignorance.
d)Patrick. Another chancer. Fie him £250. Give him maximum points and ban him for 6 months.
e)John. He was perhaps a bit foolish in not asking for the certificate, so a token fine and the minimum points. Can his employer be done?
I'm very unsympathetic about motoring offences in general and lack of insurance in particular. Uninsured drivers cause serious heartache when they have accidents and push the premiums up for honest drivers. They take society for a ride and should be punished severely.
Why had none of the offenders been offered an FPN for no insurance?
FPNs for insurance are new, so I left them out for the purpose of this exercise. I will enlarge on the subject later.
I would fall down heavily on any driver not keeping within the law
it is black and white and ingnorance is no excuse.
ban the lot of them and crush the vehicles
prison if they persist
but thats me just ranting, and not fair.
A =£200 + 8 POINTS
B =£400 + 8 POINTS + CAR CRUSHED
C =£100 + 8 POINTS
D =£400 + 6 POINTS + BAN IF POSSIBLE
E =£50 + 6 POINTS NOT FAIR BUT ITS A LESSON LEARNED DON'T WORK FOR DODGY DEALERS
In Australia it is illegal to be uninsured for injuries caused to third parties (ie to people) but not illegal to be uninsured for damage to third parties' property, or uninsured against damage to your own vehicle. Which of these or equivalent insurances is it illegal not to have in the UK ?
A 3 year ban, community servive and remind him about the holiday accom if he is caught behind the wheel again, fine for mate (is there not a legal duty to ensure that anyone who drives yoour car is covered?
B Ignorance is no excuse, if he is Afghan, is it not the good guys in power for now, is he taliban? anyway impound car 6 month ban from when he passes test and no point in fine
C long ban, crush car, no point in fine, a chancer, bet she can afford fags?
D crush van £250 fine, long ban with new test at end
E discharge, no points if poss, prosecute vehicle owner for keeping car on road without ins and hit him hard
A No insurance = £150 + 3 month ban
No licence = £100 + 3 month ban
No MoT = £ 50 + 2 moth ban
less 1/3 for guilty plea + £ 200 + 8 moth disqualification.
B. No insurance = £150 + 3 months ban
No licence = £ 100 + 3 month ban
No MoT = £ 50 + 2 month ban
less 1/3 for guilty plea = £200 + 8 month ban
C. No insurance 2 * weekly income = £340 + 6 points
D. No insurance and repeat offender.
3 * weekly income = £750 reduced by 1/3 for guilty plea = 6 month ban
E. If solicitor can convincingly lay the blame on the employer, then Absolute Discharge
Isn't the fact that the FPN (and the fines most people have suggested here) is way less than most of these offenders would have been paying for insurance a bit counter-productive? If some 18-year old with no money has to balance paying £2000 for insurance against the *possibility* of being fined £200 it's going to be an obvious choice.
Re: B) - being British, I never thought about time limits on driving on a foreign licence. How long do you get before having to take a UK test? Is it the full works or a shorter conversion course? I'm thinking of an acquaintance (yes, really), fully taxed / MOT'd / insured but (AFAIK) still on the original non-EU licence.
Graham; 12 months is the maximum on a non-EU licence. Have a look at the DVLA website for full details.
Why do our legislators insist on assessing meaningless fines against people who are IN COURT BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO MONEY ????
A fine of ten or ten thousand pounds will make no difference, neither will be paid.
My favourite is the mandatory thousand dollar fine in my state for prostitution.
Rog
you have to look at it this way,
is no good fining beyond means.
if they don't pay the fine
the bailifs come
they will sieze property or take the person ,whichever way they choose
the Bailif adds more £ on for every visit and of course they would find it impossible to insure afterwards because of the cost, if they carry on driving regardless, prison is ineviatable.
it really is entirely up to them
plus the police would know them and stop them at every occation.
I think that the guideline penalties are far too low. There is no incentive to go out and get insurance if when you get caught you get given a fine which is far less than the cost of the insurance. I think the fine should be at least the cost of the insurance. Otherwise where's the deterrent?
If you can't afford to pay you shouldn't drive - effectively everyone else on the road is subsidising your insurance through the MIB.
As for the specific examples -sentencing according to what should happen - (rather than the law at present)
A - 12 month ban - 400 hours community service (based on £2000 at £5 per hour)
B - ignorance no excuse but it is mitigation - 200 hours community service (on same basis as above)
C - difficult one - confiscate car, £50 fine, 12 month ban
D - 3 months prison, £2000 fine
E - 3 points + £50 costs.
The reason none of these examples has been issued an FPN is that these 'super' FPNs have only been issued to traffic units and not the rest of us. So our only options are 1) verbal warning (not likely) or 2) summons / charge.
These tickets have been around for at least 18 months so I don't know why they haven't been issued more widely in the met.
Reminds me of the case a while back when some elderly chap was up in court for driving without a valid license. It was a Channel Islands license that he had, and it wasn't technically valid. He got off because he had been up in court a couple of times before for minor things, and presented this license, and the police and courts hadn't realised it wasn't valid at the time.
OK, having been done by the beak myself for no insurnce when I was a youngster. I am an expert at this, the important thing is not what the magistrates dish out but the fact that when you do get insurance, the bastards load your insurance by - wait for it - 100%. So if you couldn't afford it before, you sure as hell can't afford it after. If your not already bored I recieved £400 fine and six points. I always get my insurance now.
Keep up the good work M'lord.
C and E are good reasons why the lowest minimum level of insurance should be provided to all vehicles and subsidised off the road tax/insurance premium tax/whatever so the whole 'without insurance' fiasco just goes away.
Oh yeah, whomever above said 'insurance is expensive because car repairs are expensive' - no. Car repairs are expensive because very few people _care_ what it costs to repair a car because it's not _them_ who pays. The vast majority of non-franchised garages will suddenly give you a reasonable price if you talk to the owner and say you're paying personally. The insurance companies take forever to pay out and a lot of garages just up the price to compensate for the hassle.
"B) is already working illegally deport him ASAP?"
I cannot grasp the concept of "working illegally". How can working possibly be illegal? That is a crazy law.
Harvey,
The real money in insurance payouts goes on personal injury claims, that can amount to millions, rather than repair costs. Even a new car can only cost its market value to replace, but look at the Selby rail crash. The claim for that was in the tens of millions!
This article is very useful.Thanks a lot for the information regarding car insurance.I like this article a lot.
=========================================
Arnold
autoauctions
Commenting by HaloScan
