IN10 — Using a Vehicle While Uninsured

Six points, £300, and often a seized car. If your vehicle is in the pound, we handle that too.

IN10 is the code for using a vehicle on a road without insurance. It’s strict liability — believing you were covered isn’t a defence — and the roadside consequence is usually immediate: the police can seize the car under Section 165 and take it to a pound on the spot.

The penalty is a £300 fixed penalty and 6 points, or at court an unlimited fine and possible disqualification. But IN10 allegations are wrong more often than you’d think: policies cancelled without effective notice, lapsed direct debits, database errors on the Motor Insurance Database, and genuine ‘driving other cars’ misunderstandings all generate defendable cases.

What an IN10 involves

  1. Fixed penalty: £300 and 6 points; court can impose an unlimited fine and a ban.
  2. The car is usually seized at the roadside under Section 165 and held at a pound.
  3. 6 points revokes a new driver’s licence and is halfway to a totting ban.
  4. The endorsement stays on your record for 4 years and insurers price it heavily.
  5. MID database errors and cancelled-without-notice policies are recurring, defendable causes.

My car was seized for no insurance — how do I get it back?

You need specialist impound release insurance plus ID, licence, proof of ownership and the pound’s fees. We issue 28-day impound certificates the same day — see our impound insurance service — and the release doesn’t depend on how the IN10 itself resolves.

I thought my policy was active — is that a defence?

Honest belief alone isn’t, but the circumstances can be: if the insurer cancelled without giving you effective notice, or the MID record was wrong at the roadside, those facts genuinely matter. Send the paperwork for review before accepting 6 points.

Will I definitely get points, or can it be dropped?

Where you can show valid insurance actually existed at the time, forces discontinue. Where cover genuinely lapsed, the argument shifts to special reasons and mitigation — the earlier the case is looked at, the more options remain.

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