'No hiding place' for uninsured drivers as police get to see files

POLICE are to be given new powers to access insurance company records to track down drivers and hit them with fines.

The crackdown on uninsured drivers, announced by the Government today, is intended to ensure there is "no hiding place" for uninsured drivers.

The new proposals, tabled as amendments to the Road Safety Bill now going through the Westminster parliament, will make it an offence to own a car which is not insured or which has not been registered as off the road.

Police will be given access to insurance company records so they can check whether individual motorists are insured or not.

Currently, police have to catch uninsured drivers using their cars in order to prosecute them.

Announcing the amendments, Road Safety Minister Stephen Ladyman said: "The vast majority of motorists are rightly fed up with the small hardcore of anti-social motorists who drive without insurance.

"These new measures will mean that there is no hiding place for uninsured drivers.

"We estimate that every law-abiding motorist pays 30 a year because of uninsured drivers.

"This new measure will be coupled with new police powers to electronically spot and ultimately to seize and destroy cars without insurance. We are determined to rid the roads of the menace of uninsured driving."

The new proposals are the latest move by the Government against uninsured drivers.

From July, the police took on new powers to seize and destroy uninsured vehicles.

And from November, the police will start using automatic numberplate recognition technology to identify and prosecute drivers without insurance.

On becoming law, the new offence would mean that any drivers who have no insurance and have not registered their vehicle as off the road can expect to be fined and ultimately to have their cars crushed.

Police will identify and prosecute uninsured motorists using a database of all registered vehicles in the UK.

According to the RAC Foundation, one in 20 drivers has no insurance. But statistics suggest only 16 per cent of uninsured drivers are convicted of the offence each year.

Yet their actions when they are involved in crashes or other incidents are estimated to cost insurers 500m a year.

Uninsured drivers can be fined up to 5000, but they are more likely to face between six and eight penalty points on their licence and a fixed penalty fine of around 180.