POLICE in Warwickshire are supporting the national ‘Operation Drive Insured’ campaign aimed at reducing the numbers of uninsured drivers using the county’s roads.
Officers will be conducting an enhanced policing operation aimed at detecting and seizing uninsured vehicles across the county.
Each year in the UK more than 130 people are killed and 26,000 are left injured in collisions caused by uninsured and untraced drivers, linking them to nearly one in every five road traffic collisions. This equates to one casualty every 20 minutes.
In Warwickshire, in 2018/19 officers issued 990 Traffic Offence Reports for the use of a motor vehicle on a road/ public place without third party insurance.
Of these 86 per cent of TORs issued for no insurance were to men (in line with national findings), whilst most offenders male or female, were aged between 24 to 31 years old.
Whilst statistics tell us that uninsured drivers cause more collisions, there is another consequence – higher premiums for other drivers.
MIB paid out £322 million in compensation in 2019 to victims of uninsured and untraced drivers, from funding provided by insurers and ultimately their consumers.
The cost of compensating the victims of uninsured drivers is added on to car insurance premiums, making them more expensive than they should be.
But that’s not all, figures from the Department for Transport indicate these collisions cost the wider economy a further £2 billion a year in the cost of providing emergency services, medical care, loss of productivity and property damage.
Warwickshire Police is also warning motorists about ‘Ghost Brokers’. A Ghost Broker is a fraudster who poses as an insurance provider to target people who struggle financially with unrealistically cheap fraudulent insurance deals on social media.
To check if a vehicle is showing as insured drivers can look for free at www.askmid.com.
Uninsured drivers can be reported to police by calling 101 or anonymously to independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
