Motorists break law to avoid penalty points

Motorists in the UK are using illegal tactics in an effort to avoid receiving penalty points on their licence and possible convictions, according to new research from Churchill.

With more than 6,000 speed cameras currently active in the UK, 33 million drivers are forced to keep a check on their speed or suffer fines, penalty points and convictions. However Churchill has revealed that an increasing number of people are taking advantage of the fact that the speed cameras cannot identify who is actually driving the car at the time of an offence.

The car insurance provider found that nearly half a million motorists (495,000) have convinced someone else to 'take the hit' and claim responsibility for a speeding offence, in order to protect their own licence.

More shocking still, nine and a half million people (29 per cent of all drivers) admitted that they would accept points for a speeding offence on behalf of a loved one if it would save them from losing their licence, while seven and a half million drivers (23 per cent) would ask their partners to do so for them.

France Browning, a spokesperson at Churchill, commented on the new findings: "This research shows the lengths that some drivers will go to in order to stay on the roads despite committing driving offences such as speeding.

"Trying to escape convictions by swapping points with another person is highly illegal and can lead to prosecution," she explained. "The way to avoid a speeding ban in the first place is simple – drive responsibly."

The research indicates that British motorists are willing to break the law and swap points because they cannot bear to live without their cars. In fact, 21 per cent of those surveyed claimed that they would not be able to work if they lost their licence.
A further ten per cent admitted that they could not maintain their lifestyle and commitments with only one driver in the household, while nine per cent said that they rely on their car to take the children to school.

Although 88 per cent of motorists (29 million) admitted that they knew it was illegal to swap points, nearly one in ten said it was acceptable to swap points with their partners if they shared an insurance policy, and were at risk of paying higher premiums.

Graduated driving convictions

With nearly one million UK motorists a single speeding conviction away from a driving ban, there has been a lot of interest in recent government proposals for a new graduated penalty points system.

According to a survey conducted by Direct Line, 75 per cent of drivers support the proposed system which will provide a new points scheme that penalises drivers depending on how far over the limit they were travelling.

Currently, 16 per cent of all drivers hold points on their licence and speeding convictions account for 85 per cent of all of these points. In the last three years alone, speeding offences have cost the nation more than £300 million in fines.

Comments

Leave your comments

Name:
Email:
Comments:
Please enter the validation code shown

Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.