Advice Needed-Court case on 21st Jan 09

[panther1]

Hi, I apologize in advance for this is long winded post, but any advise will be much appreciated. Here goes. In June 08 stopped by police saying no ins on vehicle, gave name of insurance broker ect, but still maintained no ins, they seized vehicle,took all details, and left me and husband on pavement without any concern. In May 08, sadly, we had been repossessed and as we where self employed and worked from home this left us both jobless. We was staying with my mother-in-law in another town, most of our possessions and paperwork was in storage in family members sheds/garages ect. However, two days later found a letter from "aquote" confirming payment by credit/debit card in full for ins policy they had placed with Provident ins, together with insurance certificate &policy schedule dated 19th Feb 08. Produced documents at police station, they said policy had been cancelled in April 08 due to none payment of monthly premiums. Contacted aquote where we was passed from one operative to another and told us they had not taken the full payment only 1/2 payment and another was due on 19th March. We had had no notification that the full payment had not been taken by post or telephone and the policy cancelled/no request for insurance certtificate to be returned/we told them of our confirmation letter confirming payment in full by debit card, and the responce to this was "oh thats just a standard letter we send to everyone", so they confirm full payment to all customers regardless if payment recieved by monthly installments/or paid in full. We had to take another policy out with another company, pay £434.00 to get our vehicle back from the towing company, which we had to borrow from family and still not had any explanation from aquote. Now i have to go to court and try to plead with the magistrates not to ban me from driving and hope they will not give me a huge fine that i have no chance of repaying. Will the duty solicitor be able to advise me if i go to court in advance of the hearing.( Did warn it was long winded) Thanks for taking time out to read my post.

[Mossycat]

Technically (in the eyes of the law) it is the drivers responsibility to make sure that the vehicle they are driving is insured and fit for use on the road, having read your post it would appear that there are mitigating circumstances in this case and will most probably be taken into account by the Magistrate.

 

Having said that, they will argue that you should have known that only 50% of the premium had been taken, but in reality if someone receives a letter from their Insurers stating full payment has been made then how many of us would then actually check bank statements???

 

What you need to do is have all your paperwork ready to show the Court and explain that you thought everything was in order, explain to the Court exactly how you have been treated by your Insurers and what they failed to do (ie send out cancellation notice).

 

Once the Court case is out of the way you then have a complaint you can raise with the FOS about your Insurer.

 

Mossy

[panther1]

Hi, Thank you for your advice Mossy, its very much apreciated. I will let you know how i go on.