Driving Without Insurance

Every 20 minutes someone in the UK is injured by an uninsured or untraced "hit and run" driver.

That alarming figure, provided by the Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB), equates to 26,000 injuries a year or nearly one-in- five of all road traffic casualties.

The MIB, which is funded by UK insurers, operates several schemes whereby the victims of uninsured, untraceable or foreign vehicle collisions can be compensated for their injuries.

Funding these compensation payments, according to the MIB, costs the law-abiding majority of drivers an additional £5 on their annual motor insurance premium.

Under section 143(2) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, a person commits and offence if:

• they use a motor vehicle on a road or other public place unless there is in force in relation to the use of the vehicle by that person such a policy of insurance that complies with the requirements of Part VI of the Act; or
• they cause or permit some other person to use a motor vehicle on a road or other public place unless there is in force in relation to the use of the vehicle by that other person such a policy of insurance.

The maximum penalty on summary conviction is a fine at level 5 (unlimited). The driver's licence would normally be endorsed with a minimum of 6 penalty points or a period of disqualification imposed.

Consulting the relevant sentencing guideline, it can be seen that this offence is considered more serious if:

• the driver has never passed a test;
• the driver gives false details;
• the vehicle is a LGV, HGV, PCV etc;
• the vehicle is carrying passengers;
• the vehicle was driven for hire or reward;
• there was sustained uninsured use of the vehicle;
• accident, injury or damage was caused by the vehicle.

It is a separate offence under section 144A of the Act to keep an uninsured vehicle in a public or private place, save for a few limited exceptions that we won't dwell on here. This means that even if a vehicle isn't actually being driven, it still needs to be insured under most circumstances.

Under section 143(3) of the Act a person shall not be convicted of driving without insurance if they can satisfy the court, on the balance of probabilities, that:

• the vehicle did not belong to them and was not in their possession under a contract of hiring or of loan; and
• they were using the vehicle in the course of their employment; and
• they neither knew nor had reason to believe that there was not a valid policy of insurance in force in relation to their use of the vehicle.

This statutory defence might apply in the case of a delivery driver who had been told by their line manager that they were insured to drive a company vehicle, but it subsequently transpired they were not. In this example there is a separate issue about whether the line manager has also committed an offence.

There is an expectation that any conscientious driver will make enquiries as to the insurance status of any vehicle they drive, so failing to ask the question "am I insured to drive this vehicle?" or wrongly assuming a valid policy was in force would not amount to a defence under section 143(3).

Of course circumstances arise where a person is convicted of driving without insurance, when they drove holding the genuine and reasonable belief that they were correctly insured to do so. Such a situation might arise, say for example, if the insurance company cancelled the policy, but failed to convey that information to the driver in a timely fashion.

Although not a defence in law, such circumstances might amount to special reasons for the court to take into consideration when sentencing. If the court accepts special reasons apply, it may impose a lesser penalty than it otherwise would.