Millionth Uninsured Vehicle Seized

Uninsured vehicles are a major issue and so it is great news that the one-millionth uninsured vehicle has been seized, underlining the progress being made by police and the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) in the fight against drivers on the road without car insurance.

The one-millionth uninsured vehicle seizure was made today by West Midlands Police and is welcomed by many, including AA Insurance.

Since 2005, when police were given powers to stop vehicles identified as being driven without insurance, an average of 500 vehicles have been seized each day.  Of those, an estimated 30% are crushed.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, says: “A million cars seized is great news, yet there are still an estimated 1.2 million vehicles on Britain’s roads, being driven without cover – that’s around 1 out of every 25.

“The MIB, which provides compensation to innocent victims involved in collisions with uninsured drivers and drivers who fail to stop, is doing great work with the police and community leaders to get through to persistent offenders.”

In the event of a non-fault collision with an uninsured driver, the victim is likely to lose their excess and no-claim bonus because there is no insurance company against which to claim.

However, a claim can be made through the MIB, which is funded by the insurance industry and compensates the victims of crashes caused by uninsured drivers.

A lost no-claim discount will eventually be restored once this recovery, minus an excess, is paid but it can take many months because of the due legal processes involved.

AA has launched an ‘uninsured driver promise’ to ensure that an AA Insurance customer doesn’t lose his or her excess or no-claim discount at all under such circumstances.

Simon continues: “In uninsured driver hot-spots such as parts of Birmingham, innocent motorist are eight times more likely than average to be hit by an uninsured vehicle.”

West Midlands Police for example are seizing, on average, one uninsured vehicle per hour.  Police identify them with automatic number plate recognition (anpr) technology which compares registration numbers against data provided by the Motor Insurance Database (MID), which is operated by the MIB.

According to BRAKE, every year, uninsured drivers kill 160 and injure 23,000 innocent people.

Not only this but the cost of the work carried out by the MIB adds around £33 to every honestly-bought car insurance policy.

According to a House of Commons written statement from November 2011, the average fine for driving without car insurance is only about £200.

“It is not a victimless crime.”

Mr Douglas, and we here at MoneyHighStreet, believe that these penalties meted out by the courts to such drivers are too lenient. 

The AA has consistently called on the Government to impose much more harsh penalties on uninsured drivers that should at least reflect the premium they would pay were they honest drivers and could include, for repeat offenders, custodial sentences.

MoneyHighStreet comments: “As well as needing car insurance when you’re out driving on the roads, be aware that even if you’re not driving it, you still need insurance.

“If you don’t have the insurance you could inadvertently be breaking the law.

“Changes to requirements were made in June 2011 to help tackle the number of uninsured drivers when the Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) was introduced.

“Whether deliberately or otherwise, it really isn’t worth being uninsured.

“Consider too whether you need to buy GAP Insurance. It may sound just like another cost but depending on the age and value of your car this may be a policy you could benefit from having. It basically protects you if you write off your car and your car insurance policy doesn’t pay enough to settle any outstanding loans on it or the cost of replacing it.”