A WARNING for motorists to insure their vehicles ahead of a new crackdown on the menace of uninsured driving has been issued by road safety minister Mike Penning.
Under the new Continuous Insurance Enforcement law – which will affect all motorists from June 20 – it is an offence to keep an uninsured vehicle, rather than just to drive when uninsured.
And a national advertising campaign is being launched this week by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau to raise awareness of the law.
Penning said: “Uninsured drivers are a danger on our roads, killing 160 and injuring a further 23,000 people each year, and they cost honest motorists £500 million in extra premiums.
“That is why we are introducing this tough new law which will leave uninsured drivers with nowhere to hide.
"Our message is clear – get insured or face a fine, court action or seeing your car seized and destroyed.”
Under the new system the DVLA will work in partnership with the Motor Insurers’ Bureau to identify uninsured vehicles and motorists will receive a letter telling them that their vehicle appears to be uninsured and warning them that they will be fined unless they take action.
If the keeper fails to insure the vehicle they will be given a £100 fine and should the vehicle remain uninsured - regardless of whether the fine is paid – further action will be taken.
If the vehicle is on public land it could then be clamped, seized and destroyed. Alternatively court action could be taken, with the offender facing a fine of up to £1,000.
Seized vehicles would only be released when the keeper provided evidence that the registered keeper is no longer committing an offence of having no insurance and the person proposing to drive the vehicle away is insured to do so.
However, vehicles with a valid Statutory Off Road Notice (SORN) will not be required to be insured.
The new law will run alongside the existing offence of using a vehicle with no insurance, which is enforced by the police, who seize 180,000 vehicles each year for this offence.
The DVLA’s records will be compared regularly with the Motor Insurance Database and this process will identify registered keepers of vehicles that appear to have no insurance.
Latest estimates are that around four per cent - 1.4 million - British motorists drive uninsured, and around 200,000 offenders are convicted for uninsured driving every year.
Currently every responsible motorist pays an average £30 each year within their premiums to cover crashes involving uninsured and untraced drivers. It is also estimated that uninsured and untraced drivers kill 160 people and injure 23,000 every year.