How to punish uninsured drivers.

[danot]

Just been watching one of those 'road cops' programmes and could hardly believe that a young fella who was pulled over and found to have no licence, no insurance, no tax, was only fined £150 and given 6 points on his none existent driving licence. What the.....?

 

That's when the idea came to me.

 

Why doesn't the courts abolish the current system of fixed fines and penalty points on imaginary licences and simply fine every uninsured driver to the value of what they would have had to pay if they had been legal?

 

Obviously, the younger you are the harder you'll be hit since a lad in his twenties driving a subaru would be hit harder than a little old lady driving a nissan micra but hey, you can't please everybody.

[Jim Hardie]

Just been watching one of those 'road cops' programmes and could hardly believe that a young fella who was pulled over and found to have no licence, no insurance, no tax, was only fined £150 and given 6 points on his none existent driving licence. What the.....?

 

That's when the idea came to me.

 

Why doesn't the courts abolish the current system of fixed fines and penalty points on imaginary licences and simply fine every uninsured driver to the value of what they would have had to pay if they had been legal?

 

Obviously, the younger you are the harder you'll be hit since a lad in his twenties driving a subaru would be hit harder than a little old lady driving a nissan micra but hey, you can't please everybody.

 

Won't happen until there are more vacancies at Her Majesty's.

Large fine = non payment = jail time.

[Rand Hobart]

Chop their legs off at the knees and give them each one of those little blue three wheelers that disabled people got in the 1960s.

If I remember correctly they didn't go very fast so they won't do much harm with one of them.

[MC Spyda]

I don't particularly like this idea. Basically gives people more incentive to drive with no insurance seeing as if they get away with it then no harm done, if they get caught then they just pay what they would have had to pay anyway, so why not give it a try.

[danot]

Won't happen until there are more vacancies at Her Majesty's.

Large fine = non payment = jail time.

So what would happen if they can't or won't pay the current fine?

 

Chop their legs off at the knees and give them each one of those little blue three wheelers that disabled people got in the 1960s.

If I remember correctly they didn't go very fast so they won't do much harm with one of them.

This could only lead to an increase in hedgehog fatalities.

 

I don't particularly like this idea. Basically gives people more incentive to drive with no insurance seeing as if they get away with it then no harm done, if they get caught then they just pay what they would have had to pay anyway, so why not give it a try.

Are you sure about that?.

 

What they're fined now is significantly less than what they would have to stump up annually in order to be legal which makes me think that they're more incline to chance it and risk saving a significant amount of money rather than chance it and risk saving nothing at all.

[MC Spyda]

Are you sure about that?.

 

What they're fined now is significantly less than what they would have to stump up annually in order to be legal which makes me think that they're more incline to chance it and risk saving a significant amount of money rather than chance it and risk saving nothing at all.

 

It's just because you said "simply fine every uninsured driver". Which would mean no points at all, just a fine. If you mean a fine AND other punishments on top then I'm all for it.

[danot]

It's just because you said "simply fine every uninsured driver". Which would mean no points at all, just a fine. If you mean a fine AND other punishments on top then I'm all for it.

I did mean just fine them.

 

What good are penalty points on a licence they don't have? Let's say for instance that they receive 6 penalty points which incidentally only become effective when/if they eventually pass their test which in turn means that they would be banned even before their licence is issued to them due to losing the 6 points on their licence. Do you really think they'll spend one penny on driving lessons knowing that?

[MC Spyda]

I did mean just fine them.

 

What good are penalty points on a licence they don't have? Let's say for instance that they receive 6 penalty points which incidentally only become effective when/if they eventually pass their test which in turn means that they would be banned even before their licence is issued to them due to losing the 6 points on their licence. Do you really think they'll spend one penny on driving lessons knowing that?

 

...because once they clock a certain amount of points they will be disqualified, the next step is potentially prison. It all adds up.

[danot]

...because once they clock a certain amount of points they will be disqualified, the next step is potentially prison. It all adds up.

The down side though is it costs more money to lock them up.

 

It's hardly a cost effective way of deterring them is it. Be cheaper to bloody pay the insurance for them.

[MC Spyda]

The down side though is it costs more money to lock them up.

 

It's hardly a cost effective way of deterring them is it. Be cheaper to bloody pay the insurance for them.

 

True enough, but they need to know that they will be punished and not just financially. Doesn't have to be prison. Could be community service, electronic tagging or what not. There really does need to be something in place on top of the fine.