Ladies' insurance news
17/04/2009

Car drivers beware ACPO says ANPR works wonders

According to statistics published by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) the introduction of a system known as ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) has led to an increase in the number of convictions for drivers without motor cover, and so female drivers are warned that forgetting to renew their ladies' car insurance could prove costly.

The data revealed that in 2006, some 78,000 uninsured vehicles were stopped by police, but in 2008 that figure rose to 170,000. The in-vehicle ANPR system uses the national Motor Insurers' Database (MID) to continuously check vehicle registration numbers coming into its field of vision. Police officers inside the car will be alerted to vehicles not registered as insured.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, said, "Police are very likely to stop the motorist and if they can't provide satisfactory evidence that the car is insured, it can be confiscated."
Once a car insurance policy expires it will be removed from the MID and the vehicle will show up as uninsured. If a driver fails to renew their policy in time, the likelihood of their car being spotted by ANPR increases as it can take up to three or four days for renewal details to be updated onto the database.

Ashton West, chief executive from the Motor Insurers' Bureau, said, "All law-abiding motorists who are insured are paying nearly £30 each towards a total sum in excess of £500 million; this is how much it costs to compensate people injured by uninsured drivers.

"Our work with the police has been very successful and must continue alongside additional measures to make it harder for the uninsured driver to hide from prosecution." Female drivers convicted for driving without valid insurance will find their ladies' car insurance renewal quote more expensive when they search for cheap motor cover.