Are these convictions?

Soups123

Hi

Hoping you can help I am looking at renewing car insurance at the minute. I am 5 + yrs claim free and have 0 penalty points.

One of the questions on the application is do you have any motor convictions?

I have expired penalty points for talking on the phone (paid fixed penalty) and from about 7 yrs ago I drove my partners car thinking my insurance covered it, at the time I went to court the judge accepted my explanation and gave me a €200 fine and 3 penalty points and that was the end of it.

Are both of these convictions?

NoQuarter

1 conviction by the sounds of it.

Soups123

NoQuarter wrote: »

1 conviction by the sounds of it.

So the insurance one is because I went to court?

What if for the other one (talking on phone) I failed to pay the fix fine on time and went to court and paid at that point, is that a conviction?

Just discussing it in work and very few seem to know how it works! My approach has alway been to just disclose everything on the call but a pal mentioned I may be doing more than I needed!

Peregrinus

Only a court can convict you.

If you get a fixed penalty notice, you're under no obligation to pay it and if you refuse you are doing nothing wrong. They will not pursue you for the amount of the fixed penalty; instead they will prosecute you for, e.g., speeding, and if convicted you will be fined for speeding.

If you pay, they don't prosecute you, so you are never convicted, so you don't have to disclose that as a conviction. But if you don't pay and are hauled into court, if you get fined at that point it is because you have been convicted, so you have to disclose that as a conviction.

If they never issue a fixed penalty notice, and just haul you into court, again if you end up being fined that means you have been convicted.

Think of it this way; a fixed penalty notice is an opportunity to pay money in order to head off the possiblity of a conviction and associated criminal fine.

NoQuarter

The only other consideration is that the Court can order you to pay a "fine" which is a conviction or a "poor box donation" which is not a conviction. People might sometimes confuse a poor box donation as a fine and think they are convicted or vice versa. The fact that you also got 3 penalty points leads me to believe that it was a fine and not a poor box donation so just that one conviction.

Perhaps ring the court office to ask to be sure because it's hard for anyone here to tell you what happened without being there.

boardsuser1

The court appearance IS A CONVICTION, I speak from experience

goz83

KC161 wrote: »

The court appearance IS A CONVICTION, I speak from experience

The appearance is not. The result is likely one though

boardsuser1

goz83 wrote: »

The appearance is not. The result is likely one though

Well The result of it,the fine in court is a conviction yes my apologies

Peregrinus

KC161 wrote: »

Well The result of it,the fine in court is a conviction yes my apologies

Yes. The fact that the matter got to court means that you may have been convicted. The fact that the outcome of the court proceedings was a find indicates that you were convicted. If you had been acquitted, there would be no fine.

Kristopherus

Soups123 wrote: »

Hi

Hoping you can help I am looking at renewing car insurance at the minute. I am 5 + yrs claim free and have 0 penalty points.

One of the questions on the application is do you have any motor convictions?

I have expired penalty points for talking on the phone (paid fixed penalty) and from about 7 yrs ago I drove my partners car thinking my insurance covered it, at the time I went to court the judge accepted my explanation and gave me a €200 fine and 3 penalty points and that was the end of it.

Are both of these convictions?

I thought those type of questions were phrased ".........in the past 5 years".

I know what I'd be telling them.........

kjbsrah1

Why not go into a Garda station and ask them to double check? Or go into the Court Office with the date you appeared in court and they will be able to tell you definitively what your actual status is with regards to whether you have convictions or not.

Offences are not always crimes. And money paid after a court date is not always a fine. Put yourself out of your misery and do one of the two suggestions mentioned. The Garda will be able to check any court outcomes on the PULSE system - they will have been put on by the court clerk after your court appearance. The court clerk will simply pull the court record from that day and will see what the judge actually wrote in respect to your appearance. Thats the avenues i would be going anyway. You have nothing to loose!

Soups123

Kristopherus wrote: »

I thought those type of questions were phrased ".........in the past 5 years".

I know what I'd be telling them.........

Yes one or two do but not all, infairness what I have found is that it seems a big problem getting a quote online but over the phone with the explanation its been completely fine!

Thanks all for the education

nuac

Kristopherus wrote: »

I thought those type of questions were phrased ".........in the past 5 years".

I know what I'd be telling them.........

Be careful when seeking insurance. Failure to make full disclosure may give your insurers the chance of deeming the contract of insurance void and refusing to pay a claim