Car seized during Op Drive Insured campaign
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Police are highlighting a case of a car that was seized for being driven without insurance during a national awareness campaign.
Operation Drive Insured is a week-long campaign which began on Monday 11 November and is organised by the MIB (Motor Insurers’ Bureau), the UK entity that exists to protect people from uninsured and hit-and-run drivers.
On Monday 11 November, officers from the Joint Norfolk & Suffolk Roads & Armed Policing Team (RAPT) on patrol in Ipswich, stopped a BMW in Crown Street after the driver was spotted not wearing a seat belt.
Officers then conducted routine checks and found that the driver was not listed on the insurance policy.
He then produced a certificate on his phone and so an officer contacted the MIB police helpline, who then contacted the relevant insurer on their behalf. Within 10 minutes they confirmed that the certificate the driver provided was for another person, with a temporary policy that had expired in July.
It transpired that the driver had edited the certificate to show his name and include the dates he was driving on. To compound matters, the driver also took out a new temporary policy at the roadside while the officer was on the phone to the MIB, using incorrect details to get a cheaper premium.
The vehicle was subsequently seized for being driven without insurance and the driver was issued with a Traffic Offence Report for driving without insurance and driving without a seat belt.
PC Will Hudson, of the Joint RAPT, said: “This is a very timely example of the lengths some people are prepared to go to in order to drive on our roads without insurance.
“Driving without insurance is not a trivial matter – just ask someone who has had their car damaged, written-off, or worse they have been injured in a collision with an uninsured driver. It can leave you financially worse off, or unable to receive any compensation, which is where the MIB come in to assist.
“The MIB were a great help to us on this occasion in conducting the document checks and were crucial to ensuring that this driver could no longer put others at risk.”