My car was hit many moons ago while parked by a gentleman who was uninsured,his car had no tax or mot either,and it took us 2 years of multiple visits to oxford county court to get anything back,as the chap in question thought he was clever and decided to represent himself(we had legal cover on our policy so had a rather dappy lawyer from london acting on our behalf).
The chap tried to claim our car shouldnt have been parked where it was,this was thrown out by the court and at another hearing he tried to put in a counter claim for him left handed graphite shafted golf clubs which were allegedly damaged in the incident,his counter claim added up to 4p less than our claim(amazingly enough he thougt we would just say oh well lets forget about it then!!).
Eventually the judge ruled in our favour and demanded that the other party paid us the £3700 odds pls costs at which point he declared that he had been made bankrupt by the inland revenue for a 6 figure sum and I could sing for my money(yes exact words in front of a very open mouthed judge!!).
Upshot of it all was that after wasting 2 years(of increased premium for me due to losing my no claims bonus!!),and a lot of court time my insurers applied to the motor insurers bureau to get my money back(minus a small excess). Every policy pays into this to ensure that drivers who for whatever reason cannot claim off the person responsible(if they race off after the accident or are uninsured),can still claim something back.
The driver had 9 points added for no insurance,tax and mot,which were added to his 9 points currently on his licence and he was banned for 18 months. A case of driving without due care was dropped.
Long post but basically,if you intend to drive on the roads then make sure you are insured,dont use insolvency as an excuse to not bother with insurance as it wont wash in court and you could make a bad situation worse!!
As Jan says the introduction of ANPR cameras up and down the country,means that at long last those who attempt to flout the law will get caught,and that can only be a good thing for those of us who pay our insurance.
Paul
Last edited by
plasticdaft on Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Discharged today the 8th feb 2012. View is much brighter now.
Continuing to rebuild our credit worthiness.
