Car insurance warning: Thousands of motorists could be caught out with £300 fine this week

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Experts at GEM Motoring Assist have called on drivers to take a moment before setting off to check whether their car is properly insured or risk heavy penalties. Police officers and the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) have confirmed a week-long crackdown of uninsured drivers which could leave many road users caught out.

Those who may have cancelled a policy to save the pennies during lockdown could be caught out and face heavy fines.

Driving without insurance is illegal and those caught out will face a £300 penalty ticket and up to six points on a licence.

Drivers could also have their car seized by enforcement teams and possibly crushed in a major blow to many road users.

GEM chief executive, Neil Worth warns checking whether a policy is valid is the responsibility of the driver and should be checked regularly.

He said driving with an uninsured vehicle was not always the work of criminals with many ordinary road users desperate to get away without paying.

He said: “GEM is supporting this week of heightened enforcement, which we believe is an effective way of highlighting the risks posed by drivers of uninsured vehicles.

“You may think of an uninsured vehicle as generally being driven by a criminal – or at least an individual with little care for road safety attempting to get away without paying.

“But the same rules apply to anyone whose insurance might have lapsed because they forgot to renew the policy, or they changed cars, or they’re in a car they wrongly thought they were covered to drive.

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“That’s why we’re encouraging every driver to check their insurance, make a note of who’s covered on the policy, when it’s due to run out, and whether or not it’s set to renew automatically.

“These checks are all the responsibility of the driver, and there are harsh fines for falling foul of the rules.”

GEM has urged drivers to take a look at their car insurance details regularly to ensure their policy is still valid.

Drivers should check whether their policy will auto-renew or whether they need to contact a provider to extend an agreement.

They urge drivers to check their vehicle using the Motor Insurers’ Database if they cannot find the correct details.

Drivers should also check whether their agreement allows other road users to drive their car if they are planning on lending it out.

The latest police crackdown comes after data from the MIB revealed that 130 people were killed and 26,000 injured due to uninsured drivers.

The MIB warns that around 130,000 uninsured vehicles are seized by police every year leaving many offenders caught out.

Anna Fleming, Chief Operating Officer at the MIB has warned uninsured driving could “creep up die ti the pandemic as many road users are put under “financial strain”.

She said: “We’ve made great strides in getting more people to drive insured in recent years, but the sad reality is with COVID-19 putting so many people under financial strain, uninsured driving levels could creep up.

“Everyone suffers the consequences of uninsured driving. We’re fully committed to our partnership with the police so we can get as many people as possible to drive insured to make roads safer and fairer for everyone.”

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