Are you one in every of the one in twenty motorists who frequently drive while not insurance? You’d better watch out – your automobile might be heading for the crusher and shipped off to the globe’s biggest scrap smelter in China!

New powers currently allow the police to seize, impound and crush any automobile found touring while not insurance. A pilot theme was introduced in Durham last spring. Since then, police have impounded a lot of than 1,200 cars. Of these around [*fr1] are crushed into cubes and packed off for smelting.

Operation Takeaway because the pilot theme was known, has been such a big success, that police forces throughout the UK are enthusiastically sharpening up their tow trucks. The theme is now supported by a brand new national police database that’s supported by the insurance industry. It permits the police to test the insurance status of each automotive in the UK whilst they are sitting in their patrol car.

Currently if you are caught red handed while not automobile insurance you’re forced at hand your keys to the police at the roadside. There are no exceptions – this applies to everyone; it does not matter if it’s just a forgetful mistake or conscious driving while not insurance.

Then you may have to get your skates on! You have just fourteen days to supply a sound insurance policy to the police and collect your car. And alternative costs mount up. Before you’ll be able to collect your automobile, you have got to pay the value of kerbside recovery (around £one zero five) and the cost of secure storage – and that might simply amount to £fifteen a day. So, if you leave collecting your automobile to the 14th day, you could be in for a bill for £315.

And if you do not reclaim your automotive, off to the crusher it goes!

Throughout the pilot theme, the value of crushing the cars was partly funded by Direct Line. They need estimated that Operation Takeaway prevented up to 2,000 accidents. And many of the cars impounded by the police were found to be un-roadworthy.

A police spokesman said, “ Uninsured drivers are typically guilty of the many other offences. Like having neither driving licence nor MOT certificate. We have a tendency to are doing everything in our power to urge these dangerous and illegal drivers off our roads”.

Indeed, uninsured drivers are much bigger downside than many of us would expect. The Department of Transport recently reported that 1 in twenty motorists regularly drive while not insurance. Furthermore, analysis from the Association of British Insurers discovered that uninsured drivers are amongst the foremost dangerous on the roads. On average they cause one accident each six months and are three times additional seemingly to be convicted of driving without due care and attention.

And who pays for those uninsured accidents? We tend to do! The average automotive insurance premium is loaded by £thirty to hide the price of damage caused by uninsured motorists. Across the UK that adds up to an extra £500 million paid out every year by the law-abiding motorists!

However that is not the top of our money pain. If an uninsured vehicle collides into your car, it’s still recorded as a “fault claim” on your policy. This suggests you will have to pay the excess when your automotive is repaired and unless you’ve got got Claims Protection on your policy, your no-claims bonus can take a knocking. Over a 2-year period, the reduction in your no claims bonus may easily cost £275 in higher premiums.

The move to take cars off the road and crush them has been warmly welcomed by the Association of British Insurers. The ABI has long criticised the leniency of punishment handed out by the courts to uninsured motorists but they still want more durable penalties. Offenders are sometimes fined simply £150 to £200 – with time to pay – and this is often a lot of but the average automobile insurance premium. Surely this can’t be true justice! Read more other FREE articles about cheap individual health insurance, health insurance comparisons and tonik health insurance

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