It is an offence to drive a motor vehicle without a certificate of insurance in place covering you to drive that vehicle on that occasion.

Driving without insurance is treated very seriously in the Magistrates Court because of the potential implications if you were to crash when uninsured.

To be found guilty of driving without insurance the Prosecution simply have to prove that you were driving a motor vehicle on a public road at the time of the alleged offence. Because this is a documentary offence the burden passes to the Defendant (you) to prove that you were actually insured at the time you were driving. This is because it would be almost impossible for the Prosecution to prove that you were not insured and they would have to go through every insurance company in the Country using their insurance database to try and establish there was no certificate in place.

One of the things that catches most people out in relation to the no insurance offence is that you do not have to actually be driving the vehicle at the time of the alleged offence in order to be guilty. The offence is actually described as using the vehicle without insurance. Using a vehicle can mean “having use of” the vehicle. This means that if the vehicle is parked up on a public road outside your home for example (even if it is broken down) the Court will still find that you had the potential use of the vehicle and therefore if it is uninsured they will find you guilty of using the vehicle without insurance.

Another way in which a lot of people get caught out in relation to insurance offences is because they believe that their fully comprehensive insurance covers them to drive a vehicle owned by another person with their permission. A lot of fully comprehensive insurance policies do not actually have this type of cover as of right. This element of the cover is also sometimes dependant on the age of the policy holder.

It is extremely important to make sure that you fully understand the terms of your insurance policy and that whenever you drive either your own car or someone else’s, that you are actually insured.