Disqualified for drink driving in UK. Now in Australia until its over

[someoneinoz]

Hi,

I came here around a year ago when I was caught drink driving and didn't provide a specimen. I refused and got a 12 month ban, lost my job, etc etc.

Ban is nearly up (a couple months left), and I've been looking at car insurance quotes with the conviction added.

At 21 years old (when my ban is expired), my insurance would have been around £800, but the minimum I can find is £1900 which is just insane for a 21 year old.

I am wondering if you have any advice, or know of any other sort of forum, where there are law professionals, I have the following scenario which I would like to see if I could get into a legal loophole for any UK insurance purposes.


- I have a UK license, I am just disqualified, however I will need to RE-APPLY for it to be re-instated (and see a doctor as I am now a HRO apparently)
- I am in Australia. I am wondering if I got an Australian drivers license, I wouldn't even need to get my UK license re-instated?

> If I have an Australian license, and a UK license (which I haven't reinstated), would insurers allow this? Would I even have to declare I had any criminal convictions?

I am not sure who would be best to ask this question to - but if it's going to save me thousands a year, then I am going to look into this as much as I can. If you have no idea or knowledge of this, could you recommend anyone that would? Or a forum with people experienced in this sort of law and legal category?

I don't realise how the UK expects a 21 year old to get on the road and to get a job again, if insurance costs them £2k a year, it's absolutely insane and I thought it wouldn't have been that much more.

I regret what I did, but I didn't drive for over 15 seconds and was parked while caught (no blue lights), which just annoys the hell out of me - seeing as the huge consequence I've had for a 15 second mistake, at 4am in the morning and with no accidents caused.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

Strictly speaking, you can drive on an Australian licence if you are a UK resident but only for a 12 month period. After that time you need a full UK driving licence in order to continue to drive in the UK. This is unlikely to help as you will still need to disclose previous convictions to your insurers. You will also still have a requirement to complete a medical which will be recorded on your UK driving record. That requirement will not go away. Rules surrounding driving on a foreign licence is designed to assist non-UK residents with driving in the UK and new UK residents driving during any transitional period. Attempting to skirt around the rules in this way could even see you being charged with driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence given that you won't have completed the medical as a high risk offender.

My advice is to go through the normal UK process for getting your licence back after a ban. Going down the route you suggest is likely to, at best delay things and at worst leave yourself open to a charge for another offence.