New research from Sainsbury's car insurance has revealed that 1.15 million people have admitted to having driven a car in the last 12 months, without having insurance. Nearly two-fifths of these people were aged 17 - 24 and a further 22% were aged 25 - 34.
On a regional basis, 6% of people in London have admitted to driving in the past year without having car insurance – the highest for any part of Britain.
Of those people interviewed who admitted to driving without insurance over the past 12 months, 19% said it was because they could not afford it; the same percentage said that they did not think it was necessary to have, 13% said that they forgot to purchase it. 13% also said that they did not have time to arrange car insurance.
It is illegal to drive a car without insurance, and penalties for those caught doing this include fines, being banned from driving and even having their car crushed. The cost of uninsured motorists adds an extra GBP25 to GBP30 to the average annual car insurance premium.