Cars ‘increasingly uninsured’

A growing number of top-of-the-range cars are being seized by the police for being uninsured, according to the Automobile Association (AA).

Its research found that 150,000 uninsured vehicles were taken by police last year; almost double the 78,000 seized during 2006.

The AA said a growing trend is for more expensive cars to be uninsured, which it says could be due to owners either not being able to afford the insurance or simply not wanting to.

Less expensive cars tend to be uninsured, the AA claims, as drivers are trying to stay incognito to avoid insurance, tax, parking tickets and congestion charges.

Other cars seized by police include ones kept in ‘car pools’ which are left untaxed on estates for use by local gangs.

Some of the cars taken include ones whose owners used forged or stolen foreign number plates.

Of the total number of cars seized last year, 40 per cent were not reclaimed, resulting in 45,000 being crushed and others sold at auction.

The AA said the trend of more expensive cars being identified as insured is in part due to the increased use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras by the police

Commenting, AA president Edmund King said: “Some motorists feel that driving a top of the range car means they are less likely to be stopped. This may have been true a few years ago but the camera does not discriminate.

“However, some villains are trying to stay one step ahead of the chase by using foreign number plates to try to avoid detection.

“We need to increase the checks on foreign registered vehicles - plates from a left-hand drive eastern European country on a right-hand drive car is often a sign.”