Driving with no insurance....

seamus

rsta wrote:

I'm so afraid of getting banned, is it likely i will be banned??

Each case is different. I'd strongly advise talking to a solicitor.

kdevitt

As mentioned below, speak to a solicitor... the way that judges treat each case is completely different (shouldn't be, but hey thats Ireland for you!)

Solicitor will say in court that you're an upstanding member of society, this was a bad judgement call on your part, you'll be unable to work without your licence blah blah. The fact that you're working full time may work against you when it comes to a fine though...being honest with you though, I've never heard of any uninsured driver getting away without some form of disqualification (I know of 4 or 5 cases)

jhegarty

rsta wrote:

Hi Jhegarty, no as i have only a provisional licence i am not covered to drive other cars. i rang them up yesterday to check. They said if i had a full licence i would be covered though...

Also, i was stopped for driving my friends car 2 weeks before i got my own car and insurance...

ouch... Get a solicitor and throw yourself at the mercy of the court....

Genghis

rsta,

I would urge you to speak to a solicitor. In the first instance the delay in the summons being delivered / issued may be a technicality on which you get off. If you do need to go to court, the solicitor will be best positioned to advise you on your plea / defence, and therefore to minimise the punishment.

In your favour, you seem like had no intention to break the law (that's not to say you disn't), you had been "advised" that you were covered on your friends insurance (which is not to say that you had no responsibility to check this) and, thankfully, you were not involved in any incident (thus limiting any actual damage as a result of your actions - though not of course the potential damage you might have caused).

I would expect some punishment, hefty penalty points and a fine perhaps. You will be paying for this in terms of a) fines imposed, b) court fees (if applicable), c) solicitors fees and d) future insurance payments. By paying c) you can increase your chances of reducing a), b) and c).

By the way - is your friend going to contribute? She would appear to be culpable in my eyes - she knowingly let you drive her car without insurance and either didn't tell you you weren't covered, or allowed you to assume you were.

Littlemonkey

Hi Rsta,

I am new here but i just wanted to let you know, my brother was in court for not having tax and for speeding, last march and he was told not to bother getting a solicitor, as it was just a waste of money, but on the day the judge asked him why he didn't have a solicitor and that because he didn't bother hiring one that it showed he wasn't remorseful for what he had done and she banned him off the road for 6 months gave him 4 points and fined him €350, He appealled it but it cost him a lot more in the long run as he had to pay for a barrister, which cost €700 for about 5 mins, So i would seriously advise you to get one,

blastman

Littlemonkey wrote:

Hi Rsta,

I am new here but i just wanted to let you know, my brother was in court for not having tax and for speeding, last march and he was told not to bother getting a solicitor, as it was just a waste of money, but on the day the judge asked him why he didn't have a solicitor and that because he didn't bother hiring one that it showed he wasn't remorseful for what he had done and she banned him off the road for 6 months gave him 4 points and fined him €350, He appealled it but it cost him a lot more in the long run as he had to pay for a barrister, which cost €700 for about 5 mins, So i would seriously advise you to get one,

And therein is the logic of the Irish legal system, as also demonstrated by the conflicting advice given on this thread. Do I hire a solicitor and look too well-off? Not hire one and not appear remorseful enough? Why not give judges a shiny €2 coin and let them toss for a verdict. That seems to be the way it works anyway, might as well make it official.

LundiMardi

Sorry but wtf?

You didn't have any insurance so how did you not know that you weren't insured on your friends car, do you smell that? it's kinda rank.. what is it? oh oh it's BULL ****.

The fact that you're only holding a Provision licence at the time AND didn't have it on you will work against you too.

You'll be lucky you don't go to prison, take the fine you'll get, sell your car to pay for the fine and catch the bus from now on.

Dades

rsta - don't bother going to court - it appears you have already been judged.

rsta

Hello again everyone,

Thank you for all replies and for that info Littlemonkey, it really just goes to show there is no definate way this will come out for me, as Seamus said earlier, every case is different... Even though i don't have the money for it, i'll get a loan, I think it certainly is best to go with a solicitor.. expect the worst and hope for the best...

And lundimandi, my friend had said she was sure she had an open policy, and we assumed that would include me driving her car. its only since i have got my own car that i know more about insurance now and how it works.

landser

Bond-007 wrote:

Rodney, We shall just agree to differ.

you can agree anything you like with him, doesn't mean that what your saying isn't rubbish!

rsta, good to see you're going to get a solicitor. there could be issues regarding when the summons was issued, how and when served etc. that you will need legal advice on. The problem with solicitors fees are, if you get off, even if he charged a grand, you'll think it good value, conversely, if you lose and he charged you a tenner, you'll think it a waste of money.

unless you can get off om a technicality, you will be done for driving with no insurance.

In_the_sea

I think that someone who doesnt have insurance and is still driving around is totally wrong..
I wouldnt drive unless I had insurance and Its so hard for me to maintain the payment for my insurance even though i have a full licence...Why should people with a first provisional licence and no insurance drive around when they are breaking the law and I would not do something like that?? ITs not fair, I had to be accompanied by a qualified driver on my first, I had to have my L plates up and pay for insurance I worked hard for..I passed my test and im enjoying the satisfaction of not having L plates being allowed to drive on my own...
Why should anyone else be any different..Plus a lot of them drive like lunatics.
:mad:

rsta

In_the_sea wrote:

I think that someone who doesnt have insurance and is still driving around is totally wrong..

I do have insurance, if you read the thread from the beginning you will see that it was a one off mistake i made by driving my friends car as she was unable to.

By the way, its not my first provisional............

Thanks for your comment

20 Times 20 Times

I know this is really sounding silly but would you get away with saying taht your friend was taking you for a driving lesson it worked for a mate of mine before when he was stopped . eh but obvious that its gone past that stage now

to be honest driving with no insurance is scum , i pay 4000e a year for mine the thoughts of some scum with no insurance hitting me seriuosly annoys me

rsta

Sarge wrote:

I know this is really sounding silly but would you get away with saying taht your friend was taking you for a driving lesson it worked for a mate of mine before when he was stopped . eh but obvious that its gone past that stage now

to be honest driving with no insurance is scum , i pay 4000e a year for mine the thoughts of some scum with no insurance hitting me seriuosly annoys me

Thanks Sarge! thats funny. but i am so silly(?) i was completely honest with the cop and told him everything. another friend said to me 'you should have just made up a name and address.... how would they find you if u didnt show i.d. or it wasn't ur car even? u would have got away with it'... oh well.

But i do agree, driving without insurance is not a good idea, i've never done it since or before that.

Sure, i was teaching my boyfriend how to drive a while back and wouldnt let him drive my car out of the B&Q carpark were we practiced unless he got insured on it...

Anyone who knows me, knows how I am about the law...

One stupid mistake, cos I cared about my friend eh...

LundiMardi

sorry, that's more BS i smell, ever heard of a taxi? I wouldn't EVER drive a car on the ASSUMPTION i was insured. You knew you were in the wrong at the time and still did it.

rsta

Ah God Lundimandi give me a break, i know i was wrong, do u need to keep going on about it......

20 Times 20 Times

yeah in fairness i wouldnt drive any ones car not insured and i would rate my driving very very highly i can pilot anything to be honest , you knew you were wrong and it was still done so to be fair you deserve what you get , i pay 4grand a year to have the safe knowledge that if anything happened me and the third party our covered.

DubTony

rsta wrote:

.... another friend said to me 'you should have just made up a name and address.... how would they find you if u didnt show i.d. or it wasn't ur car even? u would have got away with it'... oh well.

Good job you don't listen to your friends. This would have gottn you in serious trouble when the Gardai arrived at your friends house.

As for driving on open insurance; the last time I had an open policy it insured drivers over the age of 25 with a full licence.

If you haven't hired a solicitor yet, get one, and hope the judge is sympathetic.

Tomohawk

posted by Sarge
...i would rate my driving very very highly i can pilot anything to be honest , you knew you were wrong and it was still done so to be fair you deserve what you get , i pay 4grand a year...

If you are such a good driver, why are you paying 4 grand in insurance??? :eek:

In_the_sea

rsta wrote:

I do have insurance, if you read the thread from the beginning you will see that it was a one off mistake i made by driving my friends car as she was unable to.

By the way, its not my first provisional............

Thanks for your comment

I wasnt having a personal attack at u..i was just airing my view on the general problem...not an attack at u..i was replying to the post title not ur situation..sorry if i put it across wrong.

LundiMardi

Tomohawk wrote:

If you are such a good driver, why are you paying 4 grand in insurance??? :eek:

if you knew anything about driving you wouldn't ask such a stupid question

the jew

rsta, to be honest, i don't have any good advice to offer you, but i hope you get away lightly with this, cos at the end of the day you decided to drive home because your friend wasn't feeling the best. i mean if i had a mate that was pissed and was insisted on driving home but said that the only way they weren't gonna drive home was if i drove them, (lets be honest a drunk person isn't exactly easy to reason with), i'd rather have me driving them home with no insurance than them driving home pissed.

by the way i'm not saying your friend was pissed but that's just an example i gave. i mean you didn't hit anyone, so no harm was done, and (i think) you said it was at nigth, so there was probably hardly any traffic anyway.

best of luck with it.

p.s. i don't need to hear people going to me how would you like it if someone hit me with no insurance, cos i obviously wouldn't like, but it's not like the guy was driving around for months without insurance.

rsta

In_the_sea wrote:

I wasnt having a personal attack at u..i was just airing my view on the general problem...not an attack at u..i was replying to the post title not ur situation..sorry if i put it across wrong.

Cheers Inthesea, I jumped to the wrong conclusion there, just v. stressed over this whole thing... Aagh..

rsta

the jew wrote:

best of luck with it.

p.s. i don't need to hear people going to me how would you like it if someone hit me with no insurance, cos i obviously wouldn't like, but it's not like the guy was driving around for months without insurance.

Thanks for that the jew, because yeah it was a once off, like i said in previous posts i've never done it before or since then....

Cheers

seamus

the jew wrote:

i'd rather have me driving them home with no insurance than them driving home pissed.

IIRC, a guy got done for this recently enough (last three years). Apparently his mate was pissed after a night out, so the guy decided that the only way to save his mate from driving himself home pissed, was to take the mate home in the mate's car. They were stopped by the Gardai, and similar to our poster, he found himself "technically" uninsured (i.e. he honestly thought he was covered by open drive or something).

I've done a brief google and it's turned up nothing. There was a brief media flurry about it, as he was seen to only be doing the right thing.

gearbox

@rsta
Mate ive had my fair share of stupid mistakes in the past that have ended me up in court.... all off them my own fault and looking back now i wouldnt have done them hey we all learn from our mistakes and move on.

When you get summons in a district court its down to the judge on the day your really at the mercy of them and their mood. I was up in court 3 times for the one driving offence.... the first time i was up infront of the judge two gardai had gotten killed on the stillorgan dual carriage way chasing a stolen car the nite before so the judge was out to stamp down on all driving offences that day... when i stood up i thought i would be a man and plead guilty straight off which i did the judge told me to come back the next day and give him my answer as he didnt think i had thought it through... the second time i went back i pleaded the same then he told me to seak legal advice and come back in two weeks time which i did and again i pleaded guilty, the difference my solictor made was unbelivible as when judges and gardai and court people start talking about section x-y-z its way over most peoples head so i would advise one big time. he/she will also have a game plan so to speak about your case and if he/she is a local solicitor they will more than likely know which judge is sitting when your case is being heard which all helps.

But i do know how you can get worked up when u recieve a summons for the first time and i know its scarey, but from experience from people that were up on no insurance cases have ranged depending on circumstances from it being thrown out to a 3/6month driving ban with a fine to a charity of the judges choice. if you want some full advise just message me and il explain everything out in full as its so long really just to post up.

@everyone else
by posting this im not trying to be a "hard man" or anything like that im just trying to shed some light on the situation as i know how stupid i was and how scared i felt at the time and everyone i knew had a different opinion on what was going to happen to me but none of them had actually any court experience which i what i needed, and im not condoning what i did or what rsta did at all so dont bother posting trying to take what this post is about and spin it its just advise from experience

Hotblack Desiato

seamus wrote:

Apparently his mate was pissed after a night out, so the guy decided that the only way to save his mate from driving himself home pissed, was to take the mate home in the mate's car.

That's bullsh*t, if he had the keys in his hand all he had to do to prevent his friend driving drunk was to keep hold of them. How his "friend" ultimately got home wasn't his problem. There is no "good samaritan" justification under law for driving uninsured - that's not to say some dippy district court judge won't have pity on you, but don't count on it.

the jew

ninja900 wrote:

That's bullsh*t, if he had the keys in his hand all he had to do to prevent his friend driving drunk was to keep hold of them. How his "friend" ultimately got home wasn't his problem. There is no "good samaritan" justification under law for driving uninsured - that's not to say some dippy district court judge won't have pity on you, but don't count on it.

It must be great having never made a single mistake or broken a single law in your life.

Hotblack Desiato

the jew wrote:

It must be great having never made a single mistake or broken a single law in your life.

Of course I have, everyone has. But I've never driven uninsured and have no sympathy whatsoever for those caught doing it. If you want to drive other people's vehicles, get a policy which covers you - end of story. I don't appreciate that a good chunk of my premium goes to pay for those who drive uninsured.