Driving without insurance and the IN10

What it is

Using a motor vehicle without insurance, s. 143 Road Traffic Act 1988, is the offence behind what drivers call a no insurance fine: a 300-pound fixed penalty with 6 points and the IN10 code, or an unlimited income-based fine in court. It runs on two tracks the letters never explain together: the police track for whoever drives or lets someone drive, and the keeper track, where a vehicle with neither insurance nor a SORN draws letters from the database without ever moving (s. 144A Road Traffic Act 1988; gov.uk, checked 2026-07-17). The fastest real consequence is neither of them: the power to seize the car at the roadside, s. 165A.

Reading the notice

The allegation line, using a motor vehicle without insurance, is wider than driving: causing or permitting the use puts the employer or the lender of the car inside s. 143 as well.

The letter's route tells you the track: a conditional offer or a Single Justice Procedure Notice belongs to the police track, with those guides' clocks; an advisory letter naming the Motor Insurance Database belongs to the keeper track, and insurance or a SORN is what stops it (gov.uk, checked 2026-07-17).

A seizure notice is its own paperwork: release needs a valid certificate plus the fees the notice states, inside its own short window, before the vehicle can be sold or crushed, s. 165A and the regulations under it.

What happens next

A seized vehicle runs on the notice's own clock: proof of insurance plus the stated fees buys it back, and past the window it can be disposed of under s. 165A's regulations; the fees are set by regulations and climb by the day.

An accident while uninsured has a long tail: the Motor Insurers' Bureau compensates the victim under its agreements and can recover what it paid from the uninsured driver.

Six points inside the first two years of a full licence trigger revocation, on the mechanics the mobile phone guide sets out; for everyone else the IN10's 6 points sit at half the totting threshold, arithmetic in the totting up guide.

The numbers

Fixed penalty: 300 pounds and 6 points (gov.uk, checked 2026-07-17).

In court: an unlimited fine and a discretionary ban (gov.uk, checked 2026-07-17).

The record: IN10 endorsed for 4 years (gov.uk, checked 2026-07-16).

The deadlines

28 days on the conditional offer, on the clocks the conditional offer guide sets out; on the prosecution route the written charge must come within 6 months, s. 127 Magistrates' Courts Act 1980, unpacked in the single justice guide.

The seizure notice states its own release window; past it, disposal follows, s. 165A.

The keeper track has no end date of its own: the letters run until the database shows insurance or a SORN (gov.uk, checked 2026-07-17).

What people get wrong

Trusting fully comp to cover any car: driving other cars is a clause some policies carry and many no longer do, and without it the borrowed drive is a plain s. 143 offence; the certificate decides, not the assumption.

Leaving an unused car uninsured without a SORN: the keeper track needs no journey, the database comparison alone generates the letters and the penalties behind them (s. 144A; gov.uk).

Handing over the keys without checking the cover: causing or permitting is its own limb of s. 143, and the employee defence in s. 143(3) protects the driver in the works van, not the person who sent them out.