BELIEVING you are insured is a full defence in a no-insurance prosecution, a Judge told Tuam District Court when he struck out a case against a defendant.
Before him was Mary Hession, 21 Athenry Road, Tuam who was stopped by Gardaí on May 21 last when their system showed her car had no valid insurance in place.
Sean Acton solr (defending ) said his client had never been in Court before in her life and was shocked when informed that her insurance had lapsed the previous January.
She had been signed up for auto-renewal since 2007 and had assumed this had continued on January 26 last. However new rules had come into place regarding auto-renewal that his client had not been aware of. Liberty Insurance had emailed information regarding these changes to an old email address and she hadn’t received them, Mr Acton explained.
He added that his client worked in a retail outlet and honestly believed her policy had been renewed in the way it had been for almost 20 years.
Judge Faughnan said “it’s a full defence in a no insurance case if you honestly believe you are insured,” and struck out the charge.
