A stall holder in Central London has registered his van in his daughter’s name. She is nine years old - below the age of criminal liability. Consequently if he is caught on a camera for a speed or traffic light offence, the authorities would write to the registered keeper, his daughter, who by virtue of her age is under no obligation to reveal the drivers name. Subsequently, he hopes that any intending prosecution cannot take place ! Is this a real loophole in the law ?
It doesn’t matter who the registered keeper is for insurance or prosecution, as the DVLA will ask the registered keeper who was driving, not who owns it.
So all the guy is doing is buying time in the hope that DVLA get bored, and don’t bother prosecuting.
Just wondering how you can get insured on a vehicle you dont own & the owner cannot be insured as they arn’t old enough to hold a licence
therefore they cannot get insurance
It is a different story if it was registered to a business & then an employee is insured to drive it but this vehicle is registered to a private individual so I would assume that It’s the owner who has to insure it.
Afterall I couldn’t walk into an insurance vrokers & ask to take an isurance policy on a car owned by you even if for instance you had no existing policy & kept it off road
I always understood that it was the duty of the keeper of the vehicle to make sure it was taxed mot’d & insured if used on a public road
ive had a car on finance which was written off . i claimed on the insurance, i got the money and then i settled with the finance company.
to be honest i cannot see any reason why someone who has not got a licence cannot insure a car. i cannot see why they would want to, but an insurance company would take your money if you paid enough.
when i lived in the shetland islands my wife had a car, owned it, insured it and drove it but she only had a provisional licence and she was allowed to drive around unaccompanied.,however on the outer islands thats all you needed.
you can also insure a car or motorbike for fire and theft only. for when its laid up in the garage for winter etc. insurance companies will always take your money first then refuse to pay out later
a nine year old owning a vehicle would not be against the law, and i suppose they have every right to insure it and have a named driver other than themselves on their policy.
but if the above was to happen re the speeding offence then im sure there would be a loophole somewhere to catch the offending driver
I’ve got my car insured myself but it is registered in my partners name for personal reasons. The insurance company (a major one) has no problem with that, it just states on my policy that I am neither the owner or registered keeper.
I can see the idea behind it, the 9 year old is below the legal age of criminal responsibility, therefore cannot be prosecuted for failing to give the details of the driver.
I like the idea of this one but like all good things, it must be too good to be true.
A couple of points spring to mind. The owner and registered keeper don’t have to be the same person (or organisation) so I can’t think of a reason why Dad can’t be the owner and have his daughter as the registered keeper.
This next one I’m not too sure about. Can a private individual insure a vehicle registered in the name of someone else? My own insurance is due at the end of the week and I’m going to do the ringing around thing this afternoon so I’ll ask the question.
If this is a genuine loophole you can bet they’ll close it pretty damned quickly
I don’t own a car, I don’t own a bike, I’m not even the registered keeper of a vehicle, but I am the named driver/rider on both vehicles.
My wife has all the paperwork in her name, plus her own bike. She does not hold a full bike or car licence, we have have always done it this way & have never had any problems.
It is not necessary to own or be the registered keeper of a vehicle to insure it in your name & as the Police national computer includes insurance details I would think that this is the big failing in this attempted con.
There are many ways around paying tax and insurance for your motor and some work better than others. I’m certainly no angel when it comes down to it and believe me, I’ve tried most of them
If you don’t want the speeding ticket or red light jumping ticket to come to you, just register your motor in a fictitious name and an equally made up address at the opposite end of the country from where you live and you’re sorted. If you get stopped by the plod and they ask you who you are and for your address, tell them who you are (they’ll find out for sure if they really want to and there’s no point lying to them, trust me, been there, done that etc) but make up an address and tell them you’ve just moved house and the owner and address details they have for the car are its previous owners.
It’s far too much paperwork for the plod to come looking for you and the last I heard was that they don’t bother tracing the name and address the insurance policy is in (if the motor is insured at all of course) for the same reasons, although with all this new hi-tech gadgetry that’s continually coming out, I expect that to change in the not too distant future.
The same goes for the car tax renewal forms when they now allegedly send you an automatic fine out if you don’t register it as SORN or renew the tax. Just send it back writing on the envelope not known at this address or simply put each one that turns up in the bin and that’s the last you’ll hear.
The key thing is to never get into correspondence with them.
insurance companies only ask if you are the registered keeper.
the log book is not proof of ownership but proof of where the vehicle is normally kept or where the person looking after it most, lives.
i have 2 cars in my name because i own them both but my wife drives one of them all the time that i am not here, i am insured for both, one in my name and the other is insured through my wife because she drives it most of the time but we both live at the same address anyway.
you can get insurance for any vehicle whether you own it or not, the only time you may have problems is if you intend to use the vehicle for a business use under a private policy or if the car is hired to you under a hire agreement with a car hire company.
others include racing, paceing, hire and reward etc.
as has already been stated it is the responsibility of the registered keeper to forward the details of a driver that has been reported for commiting an offence.
Anyway, are you going to say your not responsible for your sons or daughters actions ? You’re their legal guardian - so then presumably you are still legally responsible.
Well, I did as I said I would whilst phoning around for insurance this afternoon (by the way, Express Insurance, FJR1300, european cover, legal, other bikes - £215!)
Every insurer I spoke to asked me if I was the owner as well as registered keeper. I asked the question about the vehicle being registered in the name of someone below the age of criminal liability to a couple of the people I spoke to and they said that it is possible for an owner to insure their vehicle if it was registered in the name of another person for certain reasons (self employed, recent bankruptcy etc) but they said that insurers wouldn’t accept that the registered keeper could be under 10yrs of age. I then asked if the age of the keeper is requested. They said no. So I said “if I said to you that I was a recent bankrupt and I wanted to insure my vehicle which was registered in the name of my daughter but I didn’t volunteer the age of my daughter you wouldn’t ask for it and the insurance proposal would be accepted” “Yes” came the reply.
So, there you have it. Alternatively, you could simply do what Rob suggested and not register your new car in your name. The fine is bound to be much less than fighting a traffic offence to court, or insuring it, or getting it tested.
Dafmad: how it works is that the police will send a letter to the registered keeper asking them who was driving the vehicle at a particular time. If the registered keeper fails to supply this information then they are guilty of an offence under the Road Traffic Act. However, and it is a big however, the law states that a person under 10yrs of age cannot commit any offence. Yes, yes, I know that physically they can but in the eyes of the law they can’t. It’s called the age of criminal responsibility and the law can’t touch anyone under that age. The upshot being that if the 7yr old registered keeper of daddies car gets a “request to furnish driver details” they can simply ignore it and nothing further can be done. The police can’t even question the child as a suspect because in the eyes of the law the child can do no wrong and so no good can be gained from interviewing the child.
. i claimed on the insurance, i got the money and then i settled with the finance company.
