Ed Sheeran has been fined £666 after pleading guilty to failing to insure his 1966 Aston Martin while it was being restored and converted into an electric car. The case was handled at Bradford Magistrates' Court under the Single Justice Procedure, with the car having sat off the road for five years.
He was also ordered to pay £100 costs and a £266 victim surcharge. Sheeran sent the silver 1966 model for an overhaul in 2021, and the DVLA spotted in December 2025 that insurance had not been paid while the work was under way.
Bradford Magistrates' Court
Sheeran told Bradford Magistrates' Court by letter that he believed the workshop's insurance covered the Aston Martin. He said the car remained within the control of the workshop in Durham after he handed it over in 2021, and that it had been kept off public roads at all times.
He also wrote, "There has accordingly been no risk to third party members of the public arising from uninsured driving of the vehicle." Sheeran added, "I have at no point had physical possession or practical control of the vehicle."
DVLA and SORN
The vehicle was declared off-road with a SORN notice on 1 February this year, but the court still convicted him of keeping a motor vehicle which does not meet insurance requirements. He said, "In fact, the vehicle has been inoperable since 2021, through the relevant date and to the present day."
That line explains the practical gap in the case: the car was not being driven, but the insurance obligation still attached while it sat in a workshop. Sheeran also said, "It is still in the process of being restored and converted into an electric vehicle at the workshop," and later called the matter a "genuine administrative misunderstanding."
Friday and 1,451
Sheeran said he never received the DVLA's initial offer of an out-of-court fine, and said he would have paid it immediately. He was among 1,451 people across England and Wales to be convicted last week of failing to insure their vehicles.
The clean takeaway is simple: putting a classic car into restoration does not remove the insurance duty, even when the vehicle is inoperable and off the road. For Sheeran, that meant a public fine, court costs, and a surcharge for a vehicle that never left workshop storage.
