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While it can be difficult to obtain car insurance if you are a driver with a criminal conviction, it’s not impossible. Convicted driver insurance, as it’s called, tends to be more expensive because insurers consider drivers with convictions a higher risk. In fact, many insurers can and do refuse applications as a matter of policy. This guide will provide some useful tips on how you can access cheaper car insurance if you fall into the convicted driver category.
You can get insurance as a convicted driver, but unfortunately, it tends to be more expensive than an equivalent standard car insurance deal. This is because insurers view drivers with criminal convictions as a higher risk and therefore more likely to make an insurance claim. In some cases, your application may be refused if you have a criminal conviction. While not all providers will insure convicted drivers, Unlock, a national independent advocacy charity that helps people with criminal convictions, has lists of insurance providers that are likely to insure convicted drivers.
There are different types of driving convictions that will affect your insurance premium. The level of influence will depend on the severity of the conviction. In some cases, insurance providers may refuse to insure you, and the insurers that accept your application will do so on the basis that you pay a much higher premium, and a higher voluntary excess. Generally, driving convictions fall into three main categories, which are as follows:
Drink or drug driving convictions will have a major impact on your future insurance premiums, especially if the offence involves damage to property and/or people’s safety.
With this type of conviction, you will have received a penalty notice within the range DR10 – DR70 and points on your licence. The number of points you receive and how long they stay on your record will depend on the nature and severity of the offence, but it will be anything from four to 11 years. Drink driving insurance is likely to be much more expensive than it is for those without convictions.
If you have been banned or disqualified from driving, your driving licence is revoked. As a result, you won’t be able to take out a new car insurance policy in your name for the duration of the ban.
Bear in mind that if you have an existing insurance policy at the time of the disqualification, this policy will no longer be valid. You should notify your insurance provider sooner rather than later. If you have additional drivers on your policy, they should also be notified so they can make alternative arrangements. This will prevent them from unknowingly driving while uninsured. Also, you may still have to continue paying your insurance premiums for the remainder of the term, but this will depend on your contractual obligation. Check the terms and conditions of your existing insurance policy and contact your insurance provider if in doubt.
If you are keeping your car on any public road in the UK, you are legally required to pay for road tax and be covered by at least third party car insurance. However, a driving disqualification could result in the cancellation of your current insurance policy, and you won’t be able to apply for a new insurance policy for the duration of the disqualification.
One way around this is to make a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) to the DVLA. It is effectively a formal declaration that you are taking your vehicle off the road. Once you make the notification, the DVLA will refund you any full months of remaining vehicle tax and you are not legally obliged to have insurance cover.
The process is free and you can do it online. All you need is the vehicle registration certificate (V5C) and you don’t need to renew it annually. You can register the car as SORN once for the period of time that you are disqualified and reinstate the car when your licence is returned.
If you are thinking about making this type of notification there are some things you need to be aware of:
Of the three, this type of conviction has the least amount of negative influence on any subsequent insurance applications. This is because this type of conviction is used for relatively minor offences such as speeding or driving without a valid MOT certificate.
However, bear in mind that habitually careless driving can lead to an accumulation of points. Insurance providers view drivers with a higher number of points as a greater risk. Therefore, the more points you have on your licence, the higher your premium is likely to be.
In the first instance, it’s better to be completely honest and open when applying for new car insurance. If you make a false statement or withhold relevant information, you risk invalidating your insurance policy. That being said, when you apply for convicted driver insurance, there is a distinction between what you must declare and what you don’t need to declare.
In this context, convictions are categorised as being either ‘spent’ or ‘unspent’. If you get a conviction, it stays on your record for a period of time. While it is on your record, it is classified as being ‘unspent’. Once the period of time passes, it is classified as being ‘spent’. This is an important distinction when applying for convicted drivers’ insurance.
Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, any spent conviction will be removed from your record. You won’t have to declare them to an insurance provider. What you do and do not have to declare is summarised below.
| You must declare… | You don’t have to declare… |
|---|---|
| Any unspent convictions | Any spent convictions |
| Any cautions | |
| Any reprimands | |
| Any final warnings |
If you have a criminal conviction and you are unsure if it is spent or not, there are a number of methods you can use to check this:
While it’s not easy to find cheap convicted driver car insurance, there are still some good deals available. There are some possible steps you can take to minimise the cost. These steps are outlined below:
No you can’t. When a driver declares to an insurance provider that they are the main driver of a vehicle when the main driver is someone else, this is called fronting. Fronting is illegal and will invalidate a car insurance policy. Perpetrators of fronting face criminal prosecution for fraud and a criminal record.
If your car is parked on any public road in the UK, you are legally required to pay road tax and be covered by car insurance. However, a driving disqualification could result in the cancellation of your current insurance policy, and you won’t be able to apply for a new one for the duration of the disqualification.
In this instance, you may need to make a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) to the DVLA. However, be aware that this means you will need to park the vehicle in a garage, on a driveway, or on private land – it cannot be parked on a public road. If you have no other option, you might find some specialist insurers that are willing to offer temporary laid-up car insurance to cover the vehicle while it’s parked.
There are insurance providers and insurance brokers that specialise in convicted driver insurance. Also, Unlock is a national independent advocacy charity that provides information and advice to help people with criminal convictions.
