Car insurance news

Drink-driver with no car insurance destroys house

A Norfolk woman is likely to struggle to find a cheap car insurance deal after she smashed into a pensioner's house while over the drink-drive limit. Even a specialist women's car insurance firm may be unable to help her following the Boxing Day incident.

Sharon Petch pleaded guilty to drink-driving, failure to attend an earlier hearing and driving with no car insurance, and was banned from driving for 20 months and ordered to pay a fine of £180 and compensation of £350. The 32-year-old was also ordered to attend a drink-driving rehabilitation course.

The court heard how Petch guzzled three glasses of wine and a bottle of Stella Artois before leaping into her Peugeot 405. She then proceeded to drive erratically through the Norfolk country roads before swerving to avoid a cat and crashing into the bungalow of a 78-year-old woman.

Weeping openly in court, Petch admitted the incident, which occurred in the early hours of December 26th 2005, and attempted to blame a whole catalogue of stresses and strains for her drink-driving. She told how she had been suffering from depression, her partner had just left her, her landlord had put her house up for sale, her children were being bullied and her son had been beaten up, but the bench adamantly refused to take pity on her. She also explained that she thought she had car insurance, but couldn't remember for definite.

The elderly lady whose house Petch collided with, Joy Pacey, was called as a witness and told the court how the car ended up only feet from her bed, leaving her hospitalised with shock for two days. The grandmother of three was forced to move out of her bungalow and has since been living with her daughter whilst the wrecked house is repaired.

Craig Handy, spokesman for CoverGirl Car Insurance Services, specialists in providing women's car insurance, said, "We pride ourselves on being able to offer unbelievably cheap prices to women of all ages, but anybody who downs wine and then crashes into an old lady's bungalow is liable to find car insurance a bit more pricey."

*A replacement car can normally be arranged under one of the following conditions: (1) Comprehensive policyholders – a replacement car may be available under the terms of your insurance policy. Please check your policy details for more information. (2) Non fault accident – where we have the name, car registration number and insurance details of the person who caused the accident, we can supply a replacement car. This is done on a credit hire basis which means the costs for this service will be passed onto the insurance company of the person who caused the accident. We may not be able to arrange a replacement car where we are unable to get an admission of liability from their insurance company, or where the driver is untraceable or uninsured. (3) Repair garage – if your car is booked in for repairs following an accident, the repair garage may be able to provide a replacement car (subject to availability).

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