Does anyone else just feel down...

Convicted Driver Insurance

SillySausage123

Well Known Member
I'm coming up to the end of my ban in a month or so, but the driving ban is truly the least of my worries.

There seems to be so many complications with a criminal record that it seems so difficult to stomach:
- Insurance premiums
- Home insurance
- Possible property rental issues (criminal record could potentially invalidate landlords home insurance)
- Possible issues with obtaining a mortgage
- Employment
- Travel Issues (work visa; cannot enter Canada for 10/11yrs)

Overall, there's a light at the end of the tunnel with the rehabilitation act in place after 5 years; but it seems so dark at the moment.
 
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Yep. It’s horrible isn’t it. I feel like the scum of the earth over it all.
try not to overthink things and keep on keeping on. If we can get through this and learn from it then maybe it’s a weird silver lining eh! X
 
I agree, which is why life is so fragile - As I stated with ROA, life gets slightly easier for some after the 5 years and people who have permanent (viewable) criminal records have gone on to do great things and lead normal lives so it shouldn't be seen as such a barrier.

It just feels abit bleak right now.
 
I could not agree more. Having to disclose private information to complete, maybe judgemental, strangers is awful.
 
I'm coming up to the end of my ban in a month or so, but the driving ban is truly the least of my worries.

There seems to be so many complications with a criminal record that it seems so difficult to stomach:
- Insurance premiums
- Home insurance
- Possible property rental issues (criminal record could potentially invalidate landlords home insurance)
- Possible issues with obtaining a mortgage
- Employment
- Travel Issues (work visa; cannot enter Canada for 10/11yrs)

Overall, there's a light at the end of the tunnel with the rehabilitation act in place after 5 years; but it seems so dark at the moment.

Hi SillySausage,

I’m a bit further down the road, so to speak - I can stop disclosing my conviction to my insurance company in July this year and finally move on with my life.

In answer to your points, these are from my direct experiences mid ban, immediately after my ban ended and subsequently since having my license back for a year and a bit:

- Insurance premiums: obviously this is going to be a bit of a shock, depending on what sort of car you choose to insure after you have your license returned. I opted to use my old car which is a fairly insignificant 1.2 so insurance wasn’t actually that scary (about £700-800 all in). Anything above a 1.6 though is going to be tough, at least until you get a year NCB under your belt. Almost 2 years down the line and my renewal price is about £150-200.

- Home insurance: never had an issue with it, both while disqualified and after getting my license back. The company I’m with (and have been for years) is pretty reasonable and doesn’t even ask about motoring related convictions.

- Property rental issues: rented for a year while I was banned and I needed somewhere at short notice to live. My landlord was great, a really nice guy, and although he did ask if I had any criminal convictions, and I had to tell him at this point, he essentially said, pretty much to the word “as long as you’re not a murderer, fiddle kids or your taxes I don’t want to know”. I guess it all depends on who your landlord / agency is and what their individual policies on criminal convictions are; most don’t mind about motoring related convictions but you get the odd jobsworth.

- Possible issues with obtaining a mortgage: I now own my own place with my partner and when filling in the mortgage application, there was no mention of anything to do with motoring related offences, only financial related things, like “have you ever robbed a bank / plan to rob a bank?”.

- Enployment: I’m in a relatively small, highly skilled and technical industry and I’d recently completed a degree, so I count myself fairly lucky that I walked into a job not soon after I’d finished studying. I can imagine in bigger sectors or the public sector especially in sensitive careers, you may struggle.

- Travel issues: I realise that Canada is essentially a no go for another 5 and a bit years, but as my partner keeps telling me (who really wants to go) “it isn’t exactly going anywhere is it?”. I regularly work abroad and haven’t had any problems with being refused entry. I recently went skiing in Japan and had no such trouble (I didn’t put down anything on the form though so I took a gamble, albeit extremely stupid). The only problem I will potentially have in the future is getting my C1/D and B1/B2 US visas renewed (can’t remember whether it’s 5 or 11 years for not declaring convictions).

It does seem like doom and gloom at the very end of your ban and that time slows right down and months seem like years, but there’s lots of things you can do to give yourself something to aim for such as shopping around for insurance quotes and getting a list of the cheapest companies, thus making your waiting time to getting back on the road a bit quicker. The best thing I can say to you having been in your position is that you’ve done the hard bits, ie, the court hearing, losing your license and then the first half of your ban.

MM
 
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Hey MM,

I really appreciate the personal experience response, helps to put things into perspective.

Congrats on almost getting through the 5 years also! It's good that you pop your head into the forum to provide an insight, I hope I'm able to do the same down the line.
 
Hey MM,

I really appreciate the personal experience response, helps to put things into perspective.

Congrats on almost getting through the 5 years also! It's good that you pop your head into the forum to provide an insight, I hope I'm able to do the same down the line.

Hi SS, after my ban, dealing with professional body & work, the house insurance hurdle hit me and still sorting it out
Work are fantastic re working at home or Skype calls if I can’t get a lift . dBS checks at work we are all having them re done & as they know about the conviction there will not be questions. But I will always have to declare it!
Did the driving course last month so done that
But it does come back to haunt you at times but reading the responses to your thread it’s better to focus on one bit at a time - good luck re car insurance do share who are good companies
Oh I don’t think you can travel to China - not that you would want to atm
 
Hi SS, after my ban, dealing with professional body & work, the house insurance hurdle hit me and still sorting it out
Work are fantastic re working at home or Skype calls if I can’t get a lift . dBS checks at work we are all having them re done & as they know about the conviction there will not be questions. But I will always have to declare it!
Did the driving course last month so done that
But it does come back to haunt you at times but reading the responses to your thread it’s better to focus on one bit at a time - good luck re car insurance do share who are good companies
Oh I don’t think you can travel to China - not that you would want to atm

Hi,

Thanks for your input it's good to hear. Hope everything goes better for you re work etc

Just on the China thing, I've seen a TripAdvisor post someone who had a DD was able to obtain a visa after declaring their criminal offence.
 
Medicine Man...
-“ Travel issues: I realise that Canada is essentially a no go for another 5 and a bit years, but as my partner keeps telling me (who really wants to go) “it isn’t exactly going anywhere is it?”. I regularly work abroad and haven’t had any problems with being refused entry. I recently went skiing in Japan and had no such trouble (I didn’t put down anything on the form though so I took a gamble, albeit extremely stupid). The only problem I will potentially have in the future is getting my C1/D and B1/B2 US visas renewed (can’t remember whether it’s 5 or 11 years for not declaring convictions).”

if you have to have a visa for entering the USA then a drink drive conviction is ALWAYS discloseable, the U.K. Rehabilitation of Offenders Act does not apply in other countries. You may well find that if the conviction is less than 5 years old then the US will ask for you to have a medical before they approve your visa request. Over that, providing it is only one drink drive conviction then they should be OK with the application.
 
Medicine Man...
-“ Travel issues: I realise that Canada is essentially a no go for another 5 and a bit years, but as my partner keeps telling me (who really wants to go) “it isn’t exactly going anywhere is it?”. I regularly work abroad and haven’t had any problems with being refused entry. I recently went skiing in Japan and had no such trouble (I didn’t put down anything on the form though so I took a gamble, albeit extremely stupid). The only problem I will potentially have in the future is getting my C1/D and B1/B2 US visas renewed (can’t remember whether it’s 5 or 11 years for not declaring convictions).”

if you have to have a visa for entering the USA then a drink drive conviction is ALWAYS discloseable, the U.K. Rehabilitation of Offenders Act does not apply in other countries. You may well find that if the conviction is less than 5 years old then the US will ask for you to have a medical before they approve your visa request. Over that, providing it is only one drink drive conviction then they should be OK with the application.

To clear this up, I’ve had a US visa since 2011 (and I was convicted in 2015) and it’s up for renewal next year - I’m in two minds whether to get it renewed, but that’s completely unrelated. Having travelled to the US many times since 2015, I’ve never had to fill a visa waiver so have subsequently never been asked about my conviction.
 
You have done nothing wrong if you are travelling on a 10 year visa, there is no requirement to disclose convictions as you go along.
If you do go down the “visa waiver” ESTA route for travelling to the US, the question about convictions has changed since 2011 and if you have a drink drive conviction that did not involve serious injury to someone else or significant damage to other persons property then you can honestly answer “no” to the conviction question.
On the other hand, the question on the form for a Visa still asks if you have ever been arrested or convicted for an offence, so for a visa application you DO have to declare a drink drive conviction.
 
Hi SS, after my ban, dealing with professional body & work, the house insurance hurdle hit me and still sorting it out
Work are fantastic re working at home or Skype calls if I can’t get a lift . dBS checks at work we are all having them re done & as they know about the conviction there will not be questions. But I will always have to declare it!
Did the driving course last month so done that
But it does come back to haunt you at times but reading the responses to your thread it’s better to focus on one bit at a time - good luck re car insurance do share who are good companies
Oh I don’t think you can travel to China - not that you would want to atm
 
Can anybody tell me . Can I get my driving ban lifted because of the covid 19 .
There is no “get out” for a disqualification for drink driving because of the Covid-19 situation.

The only way to get your licence back early is if you have served half of a ban, subject to a minimum 2 years having elapsed, and applying to the court that banned you showing what has changed in your circumstances.
The problem with that is courts are only hearing a limited number of cases and I doubt that a licence restoration application would even be granted a hearing at the moment!
 
There is no “get out” for a disqualification for drink driving because of the Covid-19 situation.

The only way to get your licence back early is if you have served half of a ban, subject to a minimum 2 years having elapsed, and applying to the court that banned you showing what has changed in your circumstances.
The problem with that is courts are only hearing a limited number of cases and I doubt that a licence restoration application would even be granted a hearing at the moment!
Thank you for your reply
 
There is no “get out” for a disqualification for drink driving because of the Covid-19 situation.

The only way to get your licence back early is if you have served half of a ban, subject to a minimum 2 years having elapsed, and applying to the court that banned you showing what has changed in your circumstances.
The problem with that is courts are only hearing a limited number of cases and I doubt that a licence restoration application would even be granted a hearing at the moment!
I can give you an exact answer on this one ☝️
I was due to go to court last Friday to apply for early return on my licence (section 42) but it was relisted for May 11th
 
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