Penalties such as confiscation and crushing are not discouraging uninsured drivers, claims the AA .
According to Andrew Howard, head of road safety for the breakdown and insurance service, people that want to avoid paying for cover have the opportunity to buy a car for less than the cost of the policy. Mr Howard explained that uninsured drivers fall into two categories – there are those who can’t or refuse to afford it and those who don’t have a licence or MOT and subsequently do not care about car insurance .
Uninsured drivers cause legitimate motorists’ insurance to increase by £30 to £50 extra a year due to a panel designed to protect people from injuries and damage caused by uninsured people.
Last month, data from Direct Line revealed that around 200 road users are killed every year in accidents that involve uninsured drivers and out of the 1.5 million uninsured drivers on the roads, only 260,000 are convicted each year.