In the last year, more than five million drivers lent their car to someone who was not insured to drive it, according to Churchill Car Insurance.
650,000 of these people said they did not check to see if the person they were lending their car to was legally insured to drive.
Lending your car to an uninsured driver can result in a fine of £271.30, on average, as well as six points on your licence. Some people have even been disqualified from driving as a result.
This is because you can be convicted of an IN12 offence, which is technically described as “aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring using a vehicle uninsured against third party risks”.
“People risk criminal conviction and losing their licence for loaning their car for someone to just ‘pop to the shops’. The scale of uninsured motoring, as a result of people loaning their car to friends and family without checking they are insured, is worryingly high,” said Steve Barrett, head of car insurance at Churchill Insurance.
“In the majority of cases this is likely to be an innocent mistake, but whether intentional or not, it is your responsibility to ensure that others who drive your car are insured to do so.”