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Rachaelink
"Its not a case of making it up as they go along, but its not a hard and fast rule either. Each claim/ underwriting case is taken on its merits.
There will not be anything in policy wording that would relate to drink driving offences and the insurers decision to indemnify or not."
I'm sorry to be blunt, but that is rubbish.
An Insurance Policy is a contract that also happens to be governed by the RTA.
As you rightly mentioned they will pay out third party claims as they have no choice to under the RTA.
The only circumstances they could then try and recover it from their own policy holder is if the policy which do not forget is a contract contains a relevant wording that they reserve the right to recover from the policyholder if they're convicted of drink driving.
The above same will apply to the own damage although that is not governed by the RTA so providing they have the right wording the can refuse to pay the own damage claim.
They will and cannot judge each claim on it's own merits and decide to indemnify or not if they do not have a restriction in the policy. It's simple contract law which is backed up by the FSA ICOBS rules on claims, Ombudsman and Unfair Contracts Law and to some extent the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading regulations.
They can only go by what the Policy wording says, if it does contain a restriction about drink driving then they can agree to waive it but they cannot impose something that is not in the Policy. Where would we be in an Insurer could just decide whether to pay a claim that is covered by the Policy wording...
There are plenty of Insurers whose policies contain a restriction whereby they will seek to recover payments to third parties for convicted drink drivers and / or refuse own damage claims. The reasons these Insurers include these is because they have to if they want to impose these terms. I'll happily give you a list of a number of Insurers who have this in their policy if you don't believe me alternatively you can look for yourself, it tends to be the cheap and cheerful companies.
Here is an Endorsement from Admiral.
"15 Drink and drugs clause
If an accident happens whilst you or any person entitled to drive under Section 5 of your
current Certificate of Motor Insurance:
¦ is found to be over the prescribed limit for alcohol
¦ is driving whilst unfit through drink or drugs, whether prescribed or otherwise
¦ fails to provide a sample of breath, blood or urine when required to do so, without lawful reason
No cover under the policy will be provided and instead, liability will be restricted to meeting the obligations as required by Road Traffic law. In those circumstances, we will recover from you or the driver, all sums paid (including all legal costs), whether in settlement or under a Judgment, of any claim arising from the accident"
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