Court letter for non-continuous insurance Options

[umarjee]

Hi,

I received a letter from court asking me to plead or not plead guilty for my car which I have not used for a year as parked in our private car park, my insurance was finished on April 2019 which I did not renew and declared SORN 30 July 2019 after receiving MIB insurance advisory letter. I have SORN confirmation in my email with starting date 30/07/2019.

Court letter is saying that DVLA claimed that on checking their record with MIB on 26 July 2019, they found out that I am registered keeper of this car on that date but without valid insurance. So they had sent me penalty notice (which I never received as I always careful about notices and penalties). In my life, I never had any driving offence or penalty so far.

Court letter is saying, if I plead guilty then I don’t need to attend court.

I want to know what I should do in this case; I don’t mind for paying a penalty which I never received but I don’t want court to decide against me which will stay in my credit profile something. In future, if I take any insurance for a car, do I need to mention this penalty and is it a motoring offence which needs to be mentioned to car insurance company. I nearly have 7 years no claim bonus so normally gets very good insurance price so don’t know how much this court letter will ruin it.

Any advice about this will be highly appreciated.

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[The Rookie]

This will not go on any credit file.

No you don't need to tell future insurers about it, this is an administrative offence not a driving one, so it will have zero effect. (what would do is driving without insurance or 'permitting' which this is not).

As you concede the offence occurred then I can't see a not guilty verdict getting very far. In which case I would plead guilty and request that as you did not receive any penalty offer that you humbly request the court considering just fining you the penalty tariff without costs, as per the guidance for a Fixed penalty under the same circumstances.

[jm2]

Do (DVLA?) really take to court action for 3 months, when after that date sorn was in place ?

Or do dvla think that sorn still isn't in place (in lieu of continuous insurance) ?

[umarjee]

This will not go on any credit file.

No you don't need to tell future insurers about it, this is an administrative offence not a driving one, so it will have zero effect. (what would do is driving without insurance or 'permitting' which this is not).

As you concede the offence occurred then I can't see a not guilty verdict getting very far. In which case I would plead guilty and request that as you did not receive any penalty offer that you humbly request the court considering just fining you the penalty tariff without costs, as per the guidance for a Fixed penalty under the same circumstances.

Thank you very much, it is really helpful. As i was so confused since yesterday about it.

Do (DVLA?) really take to court action for 3 months, when after that date sorn was in place ?

Or do dvla think that sorn still isn't in place (in lieu of continuous insurance) ?

They claim that they sent letter somewhere in July or August 2019 after checking on 26 July that my car was not SORN and not valid insurance. Court letter i received is yesterday. So court letter i would say about 4-5 months after the penalty which they supposed that they did send it to me. But it is strange that they did not send me any other letter, reminder or something else but a direct court letter extra. Maybe they find this, as a short and quick way to make money.

[southpaw82]

Maybe they find this, as a short and quick way to make money.

Considering the fines go to the Treasury and not the DVLA it doesn’t seem like a very good scheme.