So now Admiral is saying that:

• they had my car registration down wrongly (as RE02FZM) yet
• they therefore had not managed to track down my own insurer, and had not managed to contact Direct Line before today
• that they have now done so and told Direct Line that I am good to go

…which sounds plausible except that:

1. I have video/audio of them confirming my readback of my own license plate without querying it, on Wednesday
2. I have video/audio of me telling them that I am with Direct Line, during the call on Wednesday
3. they haven’t raised their inability to track down my policy, which you would think would be a bit of a red flag to them
4. during the call on wednesday the lady took my postcode/house number and confirmed back to me my entire house address, so you’d think any search with those details would throw up the policy, not least since the car is 10 years old and I’ve lived here for 11 years.

Also: what are the chances of RE02FZM being a Green Skoda Octavia and of the process getting this far without such incongruity being raised?

I am not convinced by their explanation.

UPDATE: One other point – when Direct Line phoned in on my behalf to query the status, if the liability had been accepted then, they should at that point have said that Direct Line were good to go.