Half of people caught driving without insurance made a genuine mistake and had not set out to break the law, new figures show.
The Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB), which helps the police identify uninsured vehicles, said that ‘entirely avoidable human errors’ led to thousands of people driving without cover every day.
In the past three months the MIB found that 30 per cent of uninsured drivers had no cover because their policy had been cancelled, often due to payments being missed.
Best intentions: Only half of uninsured drivers set out to break the law, new figures reveal
A further 10 per cent were uninsured as their policy had expired, and 9 per cent had invalid insurance because they breached the wording of their insurance deal by accident.
Two in every three of these drivers then had their vehicle seized by the police for having no insurance.
Last year 123,429 uninsured vehicles were seized – one every four minutes.
Here are some of the most common mistakes that lead to uninsured driving
Policy expiration: If a driver forgets when policy ends, or wrongly assumes it will auto-renew, then it can lapse.
Policy cancellation: Insurers can cancel cover if consumers miss payments. Often, this is because a payment method has not been updated.
A policy can also be cancelled if a driver fails to respond to requests from their insurer.
Going up: Car insurance premiums are rising again after two years of lower prices
Driving someone else’s car: Many drivers make the mistake of assuming fully-comprehensive cover lets them drive another person’s car, but this is not often the case.
It’s important to check that the policy includes a Driving Other Vehicles (DOV) extension.
Many motorists also wrongly assume that they are a named driver on another person’s policy.
Using vehicle for wrong purpose: When you take out car insurance, you have to select what you want to use the car for – for example, business or social, domestic and pleasure.
Taking out one policy, then using your car for another, means driving uninsured.
MIB law enforcement manager Paul Farley said: ‘Sadly, each day we find cases where someone has been stopped by the police for driving without insurance, and it appears they were unwittingly breaking the law due to human error.
‘Not only can this be a negative experience for the driver, but it also impacts police resources as they would prefer drivers to not make mistakes and be insured, so they can concentrate on motorists who intentionally drive without insurance and pose the greatest risk to road safety.’
If anyone wants to see if their vehicle is appearing as insured on the MID, they can check for free on its website.
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