If all your car contains is a dog-eared road atlas and the remains of yesterday’s sandwich, then you could be forgiven for being relaxed about the security of your vehicle. However, cars these days are likely to contain hundreds of pounds worth of gadgets such as Sat Nav systems, CD and DVD players, to say nothing of cash, designer clothes and sunglasses. Surprisingly though, we don’t seem to give much thought to the fact that we could be tempting thieves.

According to research carried out by Zurich, the motor insurance company, British motorists leave £3.9 billion worth of goodies in their cars, with 85% of us leaving belongings worth an average of £145. For 20% of us, the value is over £200 and for 5% it is over £500. That of course is just the motorists who know what their belongings are worth – 40% of us have no idea!

51% of us don’t bother to remove our CD players when we leave the car, making stereo systems the top of the thief’s shopping list. If they fancy some CDs to play in their newly acquired system, then that’s not usually a problem either, with 44% of us leaving generous collections of CDs too. When you stop and consider how much each CD costs, it is not hard to see how the figures start to add up.

An obliging 6% of us leave our house keys in the car, making it possible for a resourceful thief to break into our house whilst he’s at it. For the sporty thief, golf clubs are a favourite with 20% of us leaving them in the car boot. If, at the end of the day, none of your possessions take the thief’s fancy, then with 29% of us leaving cash in the car, he can always go shopping more conventionally.

Men, it seems are worse offenders than women, leaving on average an extra £34 worth of goods, and as far as age profile is concerned, the worst group is the 18 to 24-year-olds. Why, you may wonder, do we make life so easy for thieves? Apathy seems to be at the root of the problem, with 27% of us admitting that it is easier to leave our belongings in the car rather than take them out and put them back in again. 10% of us put our hands up to being plain lazy, whilst 8% cite forgetfulness as the reason for our lax attitudes.

Whatever the reason, we may well find that our insurers are less than forgiving, with many policies requiring that we take due care of our belongings in order to be covered for theft. Moreover, it is not only the value of our property that we could find ourselves claiming for, but also damage done to our car. Thieves are not fussy about how much damage they cause and windows are frequently smashed or doors forced open.

If you really have no alternative to leaving valuables in the car, make sure you lock all doors, and close windows and sun roofs. Finally, if you have a car alarm make sure you use it – 5% of us with alarm systems don’t even bother using them!

Sometimes it’s hard to know who to believe when it comes to statistics, and recent figures regarding the trend in the cost of car insurance premiums are no exception.

According to numbers recently released by Insurancewide.com, there has been a reduction of 9.5% in the average cost of car insurance in the last 3 months. This covers both fully comprehensive cover and third party, fire and theft. James Harrison, chief executive of Insurancewide.com, therefore believes that the figures reflect the pressure on insurers to remain competitive, in order to attract new custom as well as retain the old. He doubts, however, that the downward trend is sustainable.

In direct conflict, however, are figures provided by accountancy firm, Deloitte’s, motor insurance index, showing that premiums have increased over the last 12 months. Deloitte’s figures are based on a far smaller sample than Insurancewide.com’s, with only 1000 policies analysed.

However, the managing director of price comparison website, Confused.com, is unsurprised by Deloitte’s figures. They are in line with their own prediction that premiums would have to rise this year to take account of the growing ratios of claims to premiums. In many instances, companies are paying claims of £110 for each £100 received in premiums. This deficit has been sustained in the past by dipping into reserves from more profitable times, but there is obviously a limit to how long this can be done.

The AA adds further confusion to the picture, by claiming that in the last quarter, premiums rose by 1.35% for comprehensive policies and 3.5% for third party, fire and theft (different percentages to those of Deloitte). A spokesman explains that it is not only accident cover which is hitting the insurance industry, but also claims for personal injury and legal costs. Claims arising from the recent floods have also taken their toll to the tune of an estimated £100 million. The average premium for third party, fire and theft cover is at an all time high of £1042.41, reflecting the cost of insuring young drivers, who are more likely to opt for this category of cover than their older counterparts.

Whichever figures you choose to believe, it would seem that it certainly pays to shop around when buying car insurance. Just because a company was able to provide competitively priced cover last time around, is no guarantee that it will be your best bet this time. Direct insurers continue to provide the best value, according to Insurancewide.com’s research.

You can drive but you can’t hide. Police in the UK are getting much tougher on motorists who drive without insurance. Soon we won’t be able even to think about driving illegally without the law being on to us.

Staggering statistics revealed this week show that in Milton Keynes and surrounding areas in the last 12 months, the police have seized over 1000 vehicles that were not correctly insured. This has come as a result of tougher measures by the government that have been steadily improving over the last 5 years. Police officers can now fine drivers up to £200 and issue up to 6 penalty points on the spot. After that, the vehicles are taken off the road and it costs the motorist up to £100 to reclaim their vehicle or the police crush it.

Inspector Paul Winks, head of the Thames Valley’s Roads Policing Department said, “People who drive without insurance and proper driving documentation are already displaying a poor attitude towards their own driving and other motorists.”

This isn’t the first time there have been a large number of cars seized that don’t have the correct insurance. In December 2006, more than 850 vehicles were removed from the road in the Lothians and Scottish Borders area. Many of these cars were then either sold or destroyed, as the owners couldn’t pay either the toll to have them returned (around £105) or the daily charge (£12) while they were being held by the police. This surge was prompted by a revising of the Road Traffic Act in June 2006 and the police officers in the area have been amazed at the new bill’s impact.

The ball began rolling with these measures back in November 2005 when the then Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, introduced number-plate recognition for uninsured vehicles and special cameras to spot those cars which aren’t insured. He highlighted how the problem affects everyone by saying, “It is estimated that every law-abiding motorist pays an extra £30 a year because of uninsured drivers. Drivers are rightly fed-up with those who flout the law and we are determined to rid the roads of this small hardcore of anti-social drivers.”

Darling’s plans have lasted beyond his spell as Transport Secretary and those that are out there now, trying to break the law, are paying the price.

Recent developments suggest that car insurers are becoming stricter with their policies, after an increasing number of parents were found to be lying in order to get their children cheaper cover. Only recently a survey showed that one in ten people lie to car insurers, with one of the most common lies being courtesy of parents who say that they are the main drivers of their child’s car. The situation is indeed serious as, in a new survey by price comparison site Gocompare.com, it has been revealed that two-thirds of adults have considered doing this in order to slash premiums.

Though no one can deny that parents are of course thinking in the best interests of their children, all parents are warned that this practice, which is often referred to as “fronting”, is fraudulent and if uncovered will almost certainly result in a claim being declined and a policy being cancelled. In fact, not only does the activity of fronting put the policy at risk, but it is said that the young driver could face fines of hundreds of pounds, receive six penalty points, and even have to resit their driving test. All parents must ask themselves whether the small reduction in premium costs is really worth the risk of having a policy cancelled in the case of a serious claim or restrictions placed on their child’s driving.

In order to be stricter on activities of fronting and limit them as much as possible, various companies have now introduced new questions and amended their existing policy. For example, Churchill, which is one of Britain’s first and biggest direct motor insurers, has just amended its “young additional drivers” policy and put in clearer questions about the main driver of the car. Furthermore, from now on they will also check who is the registered owner of the vehicle.

Similarly, another major motor insurance company Esure has amended its policy and now bases its premiums on the highest-risk driver. This means that even if a parent claims that she is the main driver of a vehicle owned by her 19-year-old daughter, the premium will be based on the daughter and not the mum.

All these new measures mean that it has become more difficult for parents to lie in order to get cheaper cover for their children. For those parents worried about the high costs their young children will face due to being labelled “high-risk”, there are various legitimate steps you could take to cut down costs as much as possible. For example, young drivers can install black-box technology in their car which will charge them according to how much they drive. Similarly, some companies such as Norwich Union are cutting down their premiums by up to a third for young drivers who leave their car at home at night. This is due to statistics which show that young drivers are more likely to have an accident between 11pm and 6am.