MarylandNed

GB licenses do get sent back to the DVLA under its reciprocal agreements. So the risk is actually pretty high since it's normal operating procedure. Something would need to go wrong for someone not to get caught.

orly

I do believe dbd is being sneaky

dbd33

In what way? I drove without a license in Ontario for a couple of years, without insurance for seven, my ex didn't bother exchanging her license for ten years after arriving here and my brother drove without a license the whole time he was here illegally (many years but I don't recall how many). This sort of technical violation is commonplace and while not ideal isn't, in my view, anything to fret about.

It's possible to be caught but that, I suspect, is usually because you do something else wrong and come to the attention of the authorities.

Siouxie

Hardly a 'technical violation'.

Driving while unlicenced and uninsured is an offence.

iaink

Technical in that you are not going to be pulled over for it, even if it will seriously compound your troubles if you happen to be pulled over for something else.

Tirytory

I've read the replies, and the only thing that I can think about it is that it's morally wrong, it isn't just about legality. Whatever you did you got a ban, why the heck should you drive elsewhere?

I guess I just have old fashioned views?

JonboyE

I suspect the OP was just on a wind up, and dbd33 responded in kind.

rivingtonpike

Karen Turner is an anogram of "Ha Ha had you going!"

JamesM

Is all this possible now though?

Buying a car in Ontario with the licensing and license plate sticker system is definitely more complicated than in the UK. A lot of paperwork to be completed.

What I'm amazed is if the OP is not a troll which I am slightly suspicious of is what did they supposedly do to earn this ban and keep their license unmarked.

dbd33

Driving without insurance is certainly possible. The IBC estimates that 1/3 of drivers in Ontario have no insurance and, whenever I get a ticket and have to go to court (quarterly or so), I listen to the convictions of the people in front of me, nearly all of them end "and driving without insurance". The latter isn't quite representative of course as they may not have been busted for the first thing if the cop couldn't add the second.

Driving without a license is easy enough if the reason you don't have one is administrative; arrive in country, buy and insure car, everything's kosher. Foreign license becomes technically invalid. In the case of my ex she was still being stopped for traffic offenses and still producing her foreign license years after being in the country; the cop at the scene doesn't know, and can't easily check, the minutae of license regulations.

Another approach, guilty again, is to buy a vehicle in a plate-to-vehicle jurisdiction, bring the car home on the foreign plates and just drive it. You can insure it in the "from" location but technically, after some number of years, that's not quite right, you're expected to formally import the vehicle. Lots of cars are driven in ON on AB or BC plates for years so the owners can benefit from the lower insurance premiums that apply there.

In the case of illegal immigrants, someone else has to purchase the vehicle and provide it to the immigrant. In the case I know well, the firm that recruited the immigrants provided the vehicles, as well as a place to live (curiously they had a big old house on Mount Pleasant packed with fresh of the boaters). I assume this is pretty much usual in the building trade.

In short, sure, if you have a reasonable degree of nerve, are good with patter and don't really care if you get caught, all manner of administrative violations are easily possible.

Partially discharged

And people wonder why premiums are so high !!!!!!!

When you were driving w/o insurance what would have happened if you hit somebody/something?

dbd33

Same as if I did have insurance; people fixed on OHIP. The property damage and any claims for emotional damage and the like would be the subject of expensive litigation and drag on forever. Depending on the date of collision the litigation would be against the uninsured motorist fund or against an insurance company chosen by the lawyer of the litigant. The lawyers would win, everyone else would lose.

This happens every day (though not to me specifically). If the IBC is right and 1/3 of drivers have no insurance we might suppose that many of that 1/3 are drivers who are expensive to insure and perhaps as likely to crash as anyone else so, maybe, 1/3 of crashes involved uninsured motorists. Certainly, after my last crash, the cop seemed amazed that both drivers had insurance, he said it had been a while since he'd seen that.

I don't see that premiums are made high by uninsured motorists (at least not prior to the latest legislation). I don't think it makes any difference to my premium whether or not other people have coverage. The case for having liability insurance is simply that the fine for not having it is high.

rivingtonpike

So if you have no insurance and have an at fault accident (your fault), would you propose to pay for the damage to the other (insured - let's assume) driver's car privately? And any medical bills, loss of work etc etc?

iaink

No, hes propsing the MVACF pays.


http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/auto/mv...s/default.aspx


I dont know if its taxpayers, license holders or insurance companies (who will add the cost to their premiums) that pay into that, but either way it seems to me that those that play by the rules get shafted as usual.

dbd33

I have car insurance. I'm just pointing out that it's a common, and not irrational, choice not to. People in the position of the OP have no choice, few people can live in Ontario without a car and, if they have no license, they can't have insurance.