Police tighten net on auto insurance coverage crooks

Uninsured driving is a main headache.

Initial factors 1st, let’s make the position crystal clear: you cannot drive with no insurance coverage. Complete cease. No ifs, no buts.

If your automobile isn’t going to be driven, you don’t want insurance provided you have a Statutory Off Road Notice (SORN) from the DVLA.

SORN point

Off-road signifies just that. Permanently off-road, or at least until you re-apply for a tax disc and terminate the SORN. Just laying up your automobile for 6 months and letting the insurance coverage lapse doesn’t count. No SORN indicates insurance have to be in location.

So, having no insurance is illegal. Drivers without having insurance face getting their automobile seized and:

-       £300 fixed penalty

-       £150 collection charge

-       £20 per day storage

-       6 points on the licence

-       no automobile is released until proof of insurance coverage is produced.

And guess what, obtaining clobbered for not getting insurance coverage will almost undoubtedly lead to… an enhance in your auto insurance coverage premiums.

Touching base

So how is uninsured driving policed.

The Motor Insurance Bureau manages the Motor Insurance Database, which includes details of all insured cars in the UK.

The boys in blue are among those who can access it. 1 way they do this is by calling a committed helpline from the roadside to verify the insurance coverage status of a particular car. If the vehicle is not on the database, they know they’ve got a reside a single.

Almost 2,500 uninsured automobiles are seized by the police each and every week, so the program clearly functions. But it’s going to perform even harder from September when the opening hours of the helpline are extended from 8am-9pm Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm on Saturdays to 7am-2am Sunday to Thursday, and among 7am-3am, Friday and Saturday.

Playing the method

Ashton West, boss of the MIB, explained the pondering behind the change: “There’s a phrase we’ve heard the police use on a quantity of occasions: ‘When the MIB Police Helpline closes, criminals are just coming out to play.’

“There’s clearly a link in between people who commit crime and who do not have insurance, which is why we’re extending our helpline’s operational hours to help the police in stopping uninsured vehicles at night and into the early hours of the morning, when they really usually find out other criminal offences.”

Pilot wails

The decision to extend the service hours is a result of a productive pilot carried out in October 2013, when the helpline was accessible 24/7 for a 4-week period.

The pilot demonstrated the appetite of police officers to get in touch with the helpine for the duration of antisocial hours to establish no matter whether or not valid insurance was in location.

It brought in more than 3,800 calls to the helpline which resulted in over 850 vehicles becoming seized for no insurance coverage, all during a period which would generally be out of hours.

Police tighten net on auto insurance coverage crooks