I sat last night and, with nothing to do, watched a TV programme about police on the streets of Slough. Their main job during the episode was to police the streets looking for drivers without car insurance and valid drivers licences. I thought that it was a bit of a far cry, and that they wouldn’t be able to find that many people driving around, clearly flouting the law of the road. Right??
Wrong. In fact, this is such a drastic issue amongst Britain’s drivers that the Motor Insurance Bureau has conducted extensive studies into the correct statistics. Five percent of motorists are driving their cars without car insurance, which means that there are almost 1.7 million cars on the roads that are uninsured. And that’s bad news for all you law abiding citizens; if one of these reckless drivers goes into you, you will not be able to claim anything back for damages, as they have no insurance company to claim from.
However, it does look like there is a silver lining to this cloud. Police are clamping down on these drivers, and should they get caught brazenly driving in this manner, they could face a plethora of punishments, including vehicle seizure, a monetary fine and up to 6 points on their licence.
Not to mention the cost to get their car back out of the impound. The industry report claims that over 232,000 people were caught last year alone ad convicted for driving without valid car insurance, so the walls are closing in for these villains, as this works out to be roughly one every three minutes. I think I’d rather shell out the money, don’t you?
Ashton West, chief executive, Motor Insurers’ Bureau, said: “The fact that 1.7 million motorists still take to the roads without insurance is staggering; but there is no doubt that the number of drivers caught each year is increasing significantly, so drivers simply cannot afford to be complacent.
Indeed, the number of drivers across the UK who were caught without insurance last year would fill Wembley Stadium more than twice. The message to motorists is clear: driving uninsured is simply not worth the risk.”
And the worst thing about this research is that we are paying the price for these dodgy dealers, as our car insurance quotes peak to cover their misdemeanours. Hardly fair really.
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