OHTA.ca

Hello,

I was pulled over by an OPP police offer for expired temporary plates. I did not have insurance on the vehicle that I was operating, and this is exactly what I told the officer.

Received summons for those 2 violations; the officer said he was not taking my keys but simply got a tow truck to get me wherever I was going (to the mechanic).

Now a bit of a backstory. I have 2 vehicles that are insured. I have been insured as a driver for past 14-15 years continuously. I have never been in an at-fault-accident and have never been charged with driving with no insurance.

I purchased a Caravan as-is back in April of 2019; got it to my house using previous owner's plates. The car needed body work that I wanted to do myself (patching up of holes and rust). I got temporary plates but never did anything else.

It has sat in my driveway practically the whole summer because I never got to it. Again, I had 2 other cars so I wasn't in a rush to complete it. I finally ended up finishing the body work myself late July (I have pictures of some of the stuff I did).

August long weekend Monday I found out that my mechanic was open (I had the day off). Not wanting to spend $150 or so towing, I decided to drive the car to the mechanic to do whatever repairs were needed to get the safety so I could get the car registered.

I got pulled over less than 5 minutes into the drive (I live close to a OPP station).

Did I knowingly drive the car with the expired temporary sticker? Yes, definitely.

Did I know that I needed insurance on non-registered cars? In all honesty, no (and I know that's not a good defence).

Stupid? Yes, absolutely.

The officer told me I had to show up at the summons, and if it matters, he told the tow truck driver that I had been very good. I proceeded to tow the car to the mechanic. The tow truck driver wrote me a receipt as proof that I did indeed drop off the car at the mechanic.

Once home, I did research on my summons and proceeded to activate the insurance on the vehicle. The vehicle was insured starting at 12AM of the next day.

Before the summons, I went to Service Ontario to get a driver's abstract (shows no public records for the past 3 years).

I've also registered the vehicle.

At the summons, I basically waited until I was called up. Prosecutor simply requested that the summons gets adjourned (to October 4th).

I was also given a piece of paper with names and contact info of two prosecutors, with a note to contact one of the prosecutors well in advance to discuss any possible resolution.

I have contacted a few paralegals and they certainly didn't make me feel confident that they could do anything for me (other than take my money). One straight up told me to save my money and talk to the prosecutor myself as it would be no different.

So that's exactly what I did. I called one of the prosecutors and left a voicemail, as well as sent an e-mail.

Does anyone have any advice for me? How should I proceed?

Needless to say, this might end up being a very expensive lesson for me. Certainly not a mistake that I will repeat.

Thank you for all your recommendations.