Can I get car insurance with a conviction?

Yes you can but it will probably be more expensive because unfortunately you will be deemed a high risk driver irrespective of what you conviction was for. On comparison websites you will be asked two questions related to this;

• Have you had any driving related convictions, endorsements, penalties, disqualifications or bans in the past 5 years?
• Have you got any unspent non-motoring-related criminal convictions?

Have you had any driving related convictions, penalties, disqualifications or bans in the past 5 years?

Penalty Charge Notice

A lot of people will be thinking that they have to declare their parking fines or minor traffic offences like double yellow parking and driving in the bus lane. Fortunately you don’t,  these are council issued Penalty Charge Notices. Penalty Charge Notices do not need to be declared when you are getting a car insurance quote. 

Fixed Penalty Notice

A Fixed Penalty Notice is issued for speeding, driving while using your mobile phone, careless driving etc and is issued by the Police but some offences, like speeding, are automated. A Fixed Penalty Notice is either non-endorsable or endorsable meaning that you will get points on your licence and a fine for endorsable offences.

A Fixed Penalty Notice needs to be declared on insurance forms when you are looking for car insurance if asked for and in the case above within the last 5 years. If you have points on your licence they will also be picked up by the insurer when you apply for a quote. Points will stay on your licence for 4 or 11 years depending on your offence.

Provided you pay the FPN on time you won't get a criminal conviction, so you won't have a criminal record for it. So it is best to pay up and avoid going to court which is both expensive and stacked against you.

Have you got any unspent non-motoring-related criminal convictions?

If you have been convicted of a previous crime your conviction will either be spent or unspent depending on the length of the crime and its severity. A spent conviction does not have to be declared but unspent convictions always need to be declared if asked for.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 states that once you have been convicted your rehabilitation period will be classed as ‘unspent’ and only when you have completed your rehabilitation period will your conviction be “spent” meaning that you don’t have to declare it when looking for car insurance.

But this is only valid for convictions for 4 years and less. For convictions over 4 years your status will always be unspent if you committed a serious sexual or violent crime. For lesser sentences of four years or more, crimes become ‘spent’ after a seven-year period of rehabilitation, as long as no further offence is committed.

How much more does car insurance cost with a criminal conviction?

If you have been involved in a car accident and were caught speeding or driving while under the influence of alcohol, you will probably have been banned and possibly had to serve time. In this case you will find it difficult to get insured on a number of vehicles and on those you can get insurance you will have to pay a higher premium.

If you have an unspent criminal conviction you will also have to pay a higher premium for your car insurance but less than if you caused an accident due to being illegally in charge of a vehicle.

We ran 3 convicted driver quotes for different scenarios;

• Speeding offence with 3 points on the licence
• Drink driving and getting disqualified for 20 months 
• Unspent criminal conviction not related to driving

The driver was a 40 year old builder from Coventry driving a 2014 VW UP! 1.0l valued at £2,000. We chose this car to compare with a young driver trying to insure the same car.

Speeding with 3 points on licence and £100 fine

• £524.33 per year
• £48.50 per month

Drink driving 10 point on licence 20 month ban £1000 fine

• £1358.74 per year
• £123.26 per month

Unspent criminal conviction

• £743.78 per year
• £67.47 per month

The cheapest way to get convicted driver insurance is to get multiple quotes for comparison websites. We have teamed up with Quotezone to get you the best deals for car insurance local to you.

Disclaimer: This information is intended for editorial purposes only and not intended as a recommendation or financial advice.

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