Police have seized 22 vehicles across Devon and Cornwall in a road safety operation which detected over 120 offences in just a few days.
Operation Drive Insured saw Devon and Cornwall roads policing officers target uninsured vehicles across Exeter, Torbay, Plymouth, Launceston, Bodmin and St Austell.
Officers used both static and car-mounted ANPR cameras, which can detect whether vehicles are insured, to identify those being driven without insurance.
Throughout the course of the five-day operation:
- 22 vehicles were seized off the road for offences of either no insurance and/or no licence
- 29 drivers were reported for driving without insurance
- 12 drivers were arrested for being in possession of drugs and/or failing roadside drug tests
- 10 drivers were reported for driving without an MOT
- 122 Offences were recorded overall across the six areas
Alliance Roads Policing Chief Inspector Ben Asprey said: “Driving without insurance against the law for good reason.
“If you don’t have at least third-party insurance in place and you are involved in a collision, you could be liable for the costs involved. This can include the cost of damage to your vehicle, damage to other vehicles, personal injury claims and the cost of any damaged road furniture.
“As you can imagine, this can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds depending on the severity of the collision, and could leave you with a financial burden that could impact you and your family for the rest of your lives.
“We’ve seen an increasing number of drivers who thought their insurance policies had automatically renewed, but in fact hadn’t. We recommend you double-check with your insurance company that your policy has been renewed and that you are covered in the event of a collision or incident.”
He added: “As you can see from this operation, 12 of the uninsured vehicles we stopped during this operation were also arrested for possession of drugs or driving under the influence of drugs.
“As a roads policing team, we are determined to use the information available to us to put a stop to wider criminality and those using our roads for criminal purpose.”
