Motoring Convictions And Insurance

Car insurance companies are concerned with some customers who come to them wanting car insurance but fail to disclose their ‘spent’ driving convictions. This has a lot to do with confusion on the driver’s part. If he or she has been convicted of a driving offence such as drink driving, this conviction remains on their licence for 11 years so it is assumed even 6 years after the offence, he or she will have a bad record. But according to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, the conviction is ‘spent’ after five years.

In a recent High Court case it was indicated that it is an unlawful breach of statutory duty for companies to use the ’11 year’ rule when a driver has already spent his convictions after 5 years. This will obviously disadvantage the driver considerably when applying for car insurance.

In the court case in question, the driver had a ‘spent’ conviction for drink driving, but the conviction was still on his license. Some time after his offence and the driver was on a training course for driving heavy goods vehicles. He passed it with flying colours and qualified. But in the end, prospective employers asked to see his license and they declined to take his job application after seeing the conviction