Penalties for driving uninsured are "disproportionate"

The penalties motorists face for driving uninsured are "disproportionate" to the crime, one expert has claimed.

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) these meagre penalties for driving uninsured are part of the problem, as they are not strong enough to put people off engaging in this illegal activity.

The AA British Insurance Premium Index for the three months ending June 2008 revealed the escalating costs of car insurance, which could be aggrevating this problem especially during the credit crunch when people may have less money.

During this three-month period, car insurance has risen by an average of £20 for comprehensive cover, which now typically totals over £700 per year.

Furthermore, it is young drivers, who typically buy third-party, fire and theft insurance and already pay the highest car insurance premiums, who have been hardest hit. This is because they are most likely to make a claim.

The rises in price illustrated in this most recent index appear to follow a continuing trend - since the last index in March 2008, more than £45 has been piled on to the average premium.

Another survey released earlier this year found that UK drivers are on average paying £31 a year more on their car insurance in order to cover for people who are uninsured. This equates to more than £500 million per year on a national scale.

What is more, this already large figure does not take into account the financial costs surrounding accidents caused by uninsured drivers.
Furthermore, the research found that 87 per cent of motorists feel that the government doesn’t do enough to prevent people driving without insurance and want tougher penalties.

A spokesperson for the ABI said: "It has been a problem over the years [and] it is being very vigorously tackled at the moment through a number of initiatives.

"The police how have tougher powers than they had in the past. They are using automatic number plate recognition technology, which enables them to very quickly identify at the roadside whether or not a person is insured."

He explained that this plate registration system is linked to a central database which has led to around 1,000 uninsured vehicles to be seized in the past year.

This, however, only goes a small way to tackling the problem of what is thought to be one in 20 motorists driving around uninsured.
The spokesperson explained why this problem has escalated: "Some people think they can get away with it.

"Historically the detection rate has been pretty low. Penalties have been, and still to some extent remain, disproportionate to the crime."