I live in Staffordshire and my local police force is running a campaign called Cars Behind Bars, which is targeting uninsured vehicles. Photos of seized vans, cars and bikes are online so I had a look, expecting to see a lot of old scruffy heaps. Not so! Some naughty person in Staffordshire has had their Abarth 500 seized!!!

http://m.flickr.com/lightbox?id=8720119260

I remember seeing a TV programme about car insurance dodgers where some respectable looking chap with a late model Jag was caught without insurance for the second time in a year and said that paying two fines was still cheaper than paying the years insurance!

Love the idea of the cars being taken away

Aren't they only taken until you show up with the relevant Insurance paperwork?

Then likely they drive home and cancel it.

wont get rid of uninsured drivers until the government give the power to impose a fine a greater than the cost for insurance would have been.

dave said:

wont get rid of uninsured drivers until the government give the power to impose a fine a greater than the cost for insurance would have been.

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Here if you're caught driving a vehicle without insurance you will have to go to court. iIRC a €2000 fine is imposed and a ban from driving for 1 year. Your licence is also endorsed and given that it's a conviction you will not be able to drive other vehicles for at least 5 years. The only ones that get away with it are criminals who end up serving a sentence concurrent with the driving offence since some can't pay the fine.

There has been some recent change here - when a car was pounded it went to the crusher after a month if it wasn't claimed. Now the Gardai will be able to use these pounded vehicles. So a bit like Spain - we'll probably see the police driving Porsches, Ferraris, etc. No chance of a quick getaway.

loveshandbags said:

Here if you're caught driving a vehicle without insurance you will have to go to court. iIRC a €2000 fine is imposed and a ban from driving for 1 year. Your licence is also endorsed and given that it's a conviction you will not be able to drive other vehicles for at least 5 years. The only ones that get away with it are criminals who end up serving a sentence concurrent with the driving offence since some can't pay the fine.

There has been some recent change here - when a car was pounded it went to the crusher after a month if it wasn't claimed. Now the Gardai will be able to use these pounded vehicles. So a bit like Spain - we'll probably see the police driving Porsches, Ferraris, etc. No chance of a quick getaway.

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Sounds like they have the right idea over your side of the water.

deeyup said:

Sounds like they have the right idea over your side of the water.

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And its cheaper than buying Hyundais

For those set on not paying insurance then there isn't much you can do - no fine will be big enough. Taking the car away is irrelevant as they will just get another one within hours typically.

For the rest an endorsement on your licence for driving without insurance is one of the most expensive things you're ever likely to get. An IN10 is a licence to print money for the insurance companies - your insurance premium will go sky high. As far as insurers are concerned it is the most serious thing you can do so you can expect 5 years of paying through the nose...

jimbro1000 said:

An IN10 is a licence to print money for the insurance companies - your insurance premium will go sky high. As far as insurers are concerned it is the most serious thing you can do so you can expect 5 years of paying through the nose...

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not always i know a guy from the modified scene who just got insured for just over 500 quid for a year powerful and modded car under 30 years old. he wasnt one of the always uninsured either there was an admin error that left him uninsured for 24 hours and in that short time he got stopped and charged and an in10

dave said:

he wasnt one of the always uninsured either there was an admin error that left him uninsured for 24 hours and in that short time he got stopped and charged and an in10

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that's what he told you, if a insurance companies admin error he would still have been indemnified, sounds like it was his admin error or porkies.

dave said:

not always i know a guy from the modified scene who just got insured for just over 500 quid for a year powerful and modded car under 30 years old. he wasnt one of the always uninsured either there was an admin error that left him uninsured for 24 hours and in that short time he got stopped and charged and an in10

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Having been the victim of exactly that scenario I can say that my insurance more than doubled two years running. Year 1 £600, Year 2 £1500, Year £3200!!!
That wasn't staying with the same insurer either - that included shopping around to find the best deal. My original insurer from year 1 was over £20000 on renewal.

Moral of the story? Don't drive the car until you have the certificate in your hand!

Purchased insurance 5pm on a Friday, drove the car home got stopped at 7pm given producer and when the certificate turned up in the post it stated insurance was from midday Saturday....

jimbro1000 said:

Having been the victim of exactly that scenario I can say that my insurance more than doubled two years running. Year 1 £600, Year 2 £1500, Year £3200!!!
That wasn't staying with the same insurer either - that included shopping around to find the best deal. My original insurer from year 1 was over £20000 on renewal.

Moral of the story? Don't drive the car until you have the certificate in your hand!

Purchased insurance 5pm on a Friday, drove the car home got stopped at 7pm given producer and when the certificate turned up in the post it stated insurance was from midday Saturday....

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So why Didn't you contest it? Did you sort it over the phone? Calls recorded, so why wasn't the tape pulled etc If you were incorrectly informed and you'd taken it further correctly you would have been covered.

I was stopped by the Gardai one night 20 minutes before midnight. Whilst the Marea was in the garage getting an overheating problem sorted I transferred the insurance over for a week onto the BMW that had been in the garage unused for about 3 years. Luckily I had the car pre NCTed for a NCT that was booked the weekend after I had been stopped. My insurance cover was running out at midnight - I had got delayed with sister fixing a washing machine & talking !
I had no valid NCT certificate and no proof on me of the car being in for the NCT test. Female Garda decided to take the car off me and put it in the pound. They charged me for having no insurance putting the date down as the following day. Got a proper insurance certificate issued for the following date with no time but they tried to charge me with no owner insurance which is different. Their system showed that my late mum had owned the car but I had been the owner of it for 8 years and had been paying the car tax on it. I ended up getting a solicitor representing me in court and the slate was wiped clean. Judge gave the ban Garda a dressing down for over policing. Despite been €500 shy for the representation at least my licence was kept intact. Transcript of the call from the insurance company along with the other certificates were put into evidence. The hard one was getting the Beamer to past the NCT within 10 days - it took 3 attempts ! That would have been 6 points on the licence for a car that would have been deemed unroadworthy. It was failing on handbrake balance. :bang:
Would agree with jimbro1000 about having the insurance certificate in the hand. It's a stressfull affair. Court room was a really mixed bag and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
The time lapse between getting stopped and being served was 5 months and I thought the matter was sorted after visiting the station the following day. Had spoken with a colleague of the ban Garda who was always on traffic duty but never at the station. Since the incident my view of Gardai is tainted since it was an unnecessary waste of court time.

Go to the states in California they crush your car if you are street racing.

You guys should see Greece, they say up to 30% of drivers are uninsured!
However now with New Greece on the horizon things are getting better with police now stopping people at random checkpoints and asking for MOT, Proof of Insurance, Car Registration and Drivers Licence.
Having sophisticated computer systems like in the UK where they just type the plate number in the police car to see if the car is insured or not is still a pipe dream.

ahmett said:

Having sophisticated computer systems like in the UK where they just type the plate number in the police car to see if the car is insured or not is still a pipe dream.

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Don't even have to type it in now, ANPR - Automatic Number Plate Readers to that for them. EVERY car that passes the camera (providing the plate it legible) gets checked :slayer:

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Don't even have to type it in now, ANPR - Automatic Number Plate Readers to that for them. EVERY car that passes the camera (providing the plate it legible) gets checked :slayer:

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Wow insane.

I got stopped for no insurance by an ANPR equipped police car - in fact I was insured but had just changed insurer and the database that the system links to is not "live" but is backed up every few days, so mine was not showing. But Plod took my keys while he called the insurer who confirmed I was covered. My keys returned I was on my way. Excellent.

Lucky you were not on an important journey at the time you were stopped. I would have been very annoyed if I had been stopped as most of my recent journeys are to vist a very sick relative in hospital. Visiting time is precious. Reckon the ANPR system should have some ability to recognise when a vehicle has only just had insurance lapse. This could allow for some slack in the system. Realise Police have a very important job to do but just don't like being inconvenienced due to poor software in their systems.

wellfan said:

Reckon the ANPR system should have some ability to recognise when a vehicle has only just had insurance lapse. This could allow for some slack in the system.

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Why? If its just lapsed and they're not insured then they should get the same treatment as anyone else who is not insured.