Unisured drivers push insurance premiums higher & higher.
Staggering figures, disclosed by the UK’s premiere online motor insurance bureau InsureYourMotor.com, show that uninsured drivers are pushing up insured drivers’ premiums from anything between £15-£30 per policy, per year. According to recent DfT Transport Statistics, there are approximately 28 million insurance paying motorists in the UK, collectively paying up to £850m a year to compensate the innocent victims of these fraudsters. The UK has one of the worst records in Western Europe for this offence, second only to Greece. It is estimated that one in every twenty, or some 1.5million, cars on the road are being driven without proper insurance cover. Young couple Matt Trace, 25 and Krista Cundy, 22 were both hit within months of each other by uninsured drivers. Both clients of InsureYourMotor.com, they couldn’t believe that they were victims of what seems to be a growing trend in motoring Britain. Matt, who was forced to take a lengthy period of time off from his job as a Catering Manager comments, “It wasn’t until speaking with my insurance company that I discovered the guy who hit me was uninsured. When I was told that my car was written off I was just dreading the thought of how I was going to pay for it and get everything sorted, especially as I was off work with injuries. InsureYourMotor advised me that I had Centurion legal Cover provided in my policy, which would help me to recover some costs from The Motor Insurance Bureau. It was great, I wasn’t even aware that I had that included and access to a hire car too. InsureYourMotor handled everything from there on, it was all made quite easy for me really.” Just months after Matt’s accident, Krista was involved in a similar accident, again, involving an uninsured driver. This time the perpetrator had told Krista at the scene of the accident that he was insured and gave her a false insurance company. Krista, a student and part-time football referee, who is insured by InsureYourMotor.com’s sister company GirlMotor.com, explains, “The driver gave me his name and number and told me, at the time, that he was insured, although I’d never heard of the company before. I phoned GirlMotor.com with all the details I’d been given and thought it would all go through as normal. When GirlMotor called to say that the guy was uninsured and untraceable, I just did not know what to do. There wasn’t much damage to the car, unlike when Matt had his crash, but I was still worried about how I was going to get it fixed. We just couldn’t believe that something like this could happen to us a second time, let alone within the space of 6 months” Krista hopes that her claim will be sorted out as easily as Matt’s with her Centurion Legal Cover she also got with her policy. The Motor Insurance Bureau are currently processing her claim to help with the funding of the repair of her car; a cost that is, at this time, weighing on her insurance premium. Even if Krista is fully compensated, the thought of any pursuing legal action is not a particularly pleasant prospect for the 22 year old. The Motor Insurer’s Bureau is a body, which exists to compensate victims of uninsured drivers. The MIB, as they are known, is subsidised by regular insurance companies and of course the taxpayer. If you’re injured by someone who hasn’t bothered to get insurance for his car, this is where your claim will lie, assuming you cannot get compensation from the driver personally. For insured drivers the frustration mounts, having to pay extra on their premiums to subsidise the insurance scammers, losing their no-claims bonus in accidents with uninsured drivers and the hassle and expense involved in getting the car fixed on their own insurance. The Government are doing all they can to ensure that cameras in the city prevent congestion charge dodgers, but would it not be an idea to use the £850 million subsidy to utilise these cameras to catch insurance fraudsters and sentence them in an appropriate way? David Harlow, managing Director of InsureYourMortor.com comments, “In my opinion the only way to crack down on drivers without proper insurance is heavier sentencing. Current sentencing for uninsured drivers is, quite frankly, laughable. A typical penalty for someone caught driving without insurance, averages around a hundred quid and a slap on the wrist, a risk worth taking you might well be thinking! There have even been instances where convicted drivers drive away from court after sentencing still having no insurance! It’s not fair on those people who are forced to pay high premiums for those who think they are above the law.”Date - 13/02/2003
