One in five young drivers 'do not have insurance'

One in five young drivers do not have valid car insurance, new figures from the Motor Insurers’ Bureau have shown.

The startling figure represents 250,000 people aged between 17 and 20 years old.

The study also found one in ten young drivers claimed that they did not know that it is compulsory to take out car insurance when driving.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “The police have powers to seize and destroy uninsured cars, but with the value of many vehicles so low this is not proving enough of a deterrent.”

Fixed fines for uninsured drivers

The Continuous Insurance Enforcement scheme will provide a new fixed penalty for people who ignore official reminders that their insurance has expired. This will apply to vehicles that aren’t declared as being off the road through a Statutory Off-Road Notification (SORN) and are not insured. Continuing offenders will risk having their vehicle seized and destroyed.

Automatic Number Plate Reading (ANPR) equipment enables the police to check the insurance details of more cars than ever before and as a result they are now seizing around 1500 uninsured vehicles per week.