Money News

Courts “too soft” on uninsured drivers

Friday 2 December, 2011

By Martin Fagan

£200 average fine meted out to uninsured drivers will “outrage” honest motorists, says AA.

The average fine handed down by courts in England and Wales to people caught driving without insurance is a paltry £200, according to new figures released in a House of Commons written statement.

The AA says honest motorists will rightly be “outraged” by the statistics, which were released by the justice minister Crispin Blunt, following a parliamentary question by conservative MP Karl McCartney.

In 2010, courts in England and Wales issued 105,082 fines averaging £200. Topping the league of uninsured driver fines is the Metropolitan Police area, whose courts issued 21,449 fines averaging £290 during the year.

The biggest fines were issued in the City of London, averaging £390. At the opposite end of the scale, average fines of just £150 were issued in Durham, to 1,040 offenders. The AA says penalties are means-tested and the maximum fine available - £5,000 - is rarely, if ever, imposed.

Uninsured drivers kill 160 and injure 23,000 innocent people every year, says AA Insurance. The motoring organisation adds the majority of those guilty of driving without insurance are young men who are five times more likely to have other motoring offences to their name.

“I certainly think that the UK is far too soft on hard-core uninsured drivers and most people will consider a £200 fine an insult,” said Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance.

In addition to a fine, I believe uninsured drivers should pay the equivalent of the unpaid insurance premium, which can easily be calculated. What's more, the fine should be sufficiently great to make them think twice before re-offending.”

Douglas accepts that in most cases the defendant's car will be confiscated and disposed of by police, the value of which can be added to the cost of the fine. Last year, police crushed over 100,000 uninsured vehicles.

“Most of these vehicles were old and with little value; as well as being poorly maintained or even downright dangerous, ” he says.

“We're failing honest motorists by such lenient fines. In my view, it's vital to get the message over to this motoring underclass and, importantly, to their friends and families, that driving without insurance is socially unacceptable.”

The AA estimates that 1 in 25 motorists in the UK drives without insurance, one of the poorest records in Europe. It compares with an estimated 1 out of every 500 in Germany.

Photo by alancleaver_2000