Latest Car Insurance News

Posted November 2005

Number plate theft and the cloning of vehicles.

Vehicle cloning means normal law abiding motorists stand the chance of being stopped by the police for offences they were not involved with, according to the AA Motoring Trust.

The increased use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) by the police has implications that the public need to be aware of which involves the practice of number plate theft as part of the criminal activity resulting from vehicle duplication.

The loss of number plates through theft appears, on the face of it, to be an act of mindless vandalism, but has the potential for accusations of criminality for the legitimate owner of the registered vehicle. Some number plates are being applied to stolen cars of the same model and colour, effectively cloning the vehicle. These cars are then being driven without road tax and car insurance and used in many criminal ways including evasion of prosecution from speed and traffic enforcement ANPR cameras, the congestion charge, illegal parking and petrol station security.

ANPR cameras are detecting cloned vehicles where offences are being committed and the legitimate owner is being charged and required to prove their innocence. Many stories of distress are being reported such as a driver who only ever traveled to London by train yet received bills of £8,000 for speeding offences and congestion chares in the capital, and an older woman driver who was hit with accusations of speeding, driving-off petrol theft and illegal parking - both victims of vehicle cloning.

The police now measure the crime of number plate theft, since regulations made it far more difficult for any one other than the true owner to purchase newly made plates and stealing them has become an attractive option for the criminal. Records show that 14,176 were stolen in 2004. Illegal use of those number plates is becoming very expensive to the country, for example, over £14 million worth of fuel stolen per year from petrol stations in drive-off thefts, most of which involves cloned cars.

Any of these accusations mean time consuming denials and required arguments of innocence by the true owner of the car registration.

AA Motoring Trust make some suggestions worthy of serious consideration:

a) If your number plates are stolen, don’t treat it as trivial, report it to the police immediately. The sooner they have a registration number they believe to be duplicated the sooner they can use the ANPR network to track the vehicle.
b) Don’t ignore any parking tickets or speeding fines you know couldn’t have involved your vehicle. Ensure you explain the circumstances to the issuing authority as soon as possible, informing them of the police crime reference number given to you when you reported the theft.
c) Be sure to carry your vehicle registration document with you when driving, (don’t leave it in the car) so that if your plate is spotted and the police stop you, you can prove ownership.
d) If you experience harassment as a result of being cloned you can ask the DVLA to issue a new number by re-registering your car.

Some technical developments being considered to help stop number plate theft include: shear bolts that break if anyone attempts to undo them, plates that shatter if interfered with and electronic chips fitted within the number plate to make it completely unique.

 

Posted November 2005

AA study highlights attitude issues with young male drivers.

A recently published study from the AA Motor Trust (Night-Time Accidents) adds research weight to the previous belief that the problem with the amount of night-time accidents experienced by young drivers (males) in Britain is mainly down to their attitude.

It was initiated against as a response to the fact that although only 25% of travelling made by car drivers between 5.00 pm and 8.00 am, this time accounted for 40% of the serious and fatal injuries to drivers. It aimed, amongst other things, to discover through focus groups young people’s attitudes and concerns regarding night-time driving then establish what may be done to alleviate the problems and what further study may be undertaken better to focus minds on solving the issues.

The study suggested that the amount of road injuries and fatalities in built-up districts may be attributed of the young to the attraction to clubs and pubs in town locations with the accompanying early evening arrival and early morning departure times. Drivers recorded many incidents, whilst not owning up to being under the influence of drink or drugs themselves, they had carried passengers that had been variously drunk, boisterous, distracting or sick (needing to stop the car even on a motorway), creating hazards that could easily contribute to an incident.

Rural roads were a particular magnet to young male drivers as a test of their car handling skills, accidents frequently happening whilst driving older, smaller cars with the maximum (or more) number of passengers. A minority of male drivers between 17 and 25 wishing to show off their skill, not realising the effect of the passenger load on the handling of the car and, worryingly, believed that if they couldn’t see the lights of an oncoming car there was nothing there!

Recommendations for young drivers included:
1. Increased driver education and training undertaken before being allowed to drive alone.
2. Increased night driving risk awareness programmes with preferable involvement of car insurance companies, motoring organizations together with local and central government.
3. Reducing the young drivers’ exposure (not allowing those who have just passed drive during certain high risk hours. Although this bears the caveat that the benefit of reduction on accidents of young people would have to be weighed against curtailing the employment and mobility of this age group.
4. Restricting the number of passengers that could be carried by young drivers in view of the high association between accidents and the number of passengers.

The study recognised that more research was required into night-time travel patterns in order to provide concrete solutions, but added strong evidence that this is a situation that requires action to reduce the imbalance of fatal and serious injuries.

August 2005 to November 2005 News Articles

August 2005 News Articles

April 2005 to July 2005 News Articles

May 2004 to December 2004 News Articles

March 2004 to April 2004 News Articles