No government initiative encourages car insurance dodgers

The lack of a government campaign telling people of the consequences that face them if they fail to purchase car insurance is one of the main reasons for many people driving uninsured, according to an industry expert.

Graeme Trudgill, technical and corporate affairs executive at the British Insurance Brokers' Association, believes that many people believe that the punishment for having no car insurance is light and thus worth risking not having.

He said: "The punishment is perceived as being very light and unfortunately many people have chanced it in the past."

Mr Trudgill added that many people believe they can get away with it and with cheap car insurance being hard to find, think it is expensive.

He concluded that as the costs of personal injuries rise, many law-abiding drivers are having to stump up to help those injured by uninsured drivers.

"There is a body that helps the victims of uninsured drivers. The problem is someone has to pay for that. There is a levy on every single motor insurance policy which adds up to around £500 million a year. That pot has been increasing over the past few years as personal injury costs rise," he explained.

The average cost for getting caught driving without car insurance in the UK is only £250, according to comparethemarket.com.

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