Call to hit uninsured drivers with big fines

3:53pm Monday 28th April 2008

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A SECRETARY has launched a one-woman battle to hold uninsured drivers to account after being left hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

Alison Scrivener, 50, is convinced it is cheaper for uninsured drivers to take their chances as court fines, if they have an accident, are much less than the cost of insurance.

An uninsured driver crashed into the front garden of her home in North Cray Road, Bexley, in August last year.

A concrete fence was demolished and Mrs Scrivener's son's car was written off in the collision.

The Scriveners have been left at least £500 out of pocket as a result of the accident.

Mrs Scrivener was at Bexley Magistrates' Court last week to hear the driver admit to driving without a licence and without insurance.

He was fined £200 and banned from driving for six months.

Afterwards she said: "This is not justice.

"Since he did not have a licence anyway, I doubt being disqualified will mean anything to him.

"And £200 is a fraction of what the insurance would have cost him.

"So he has effectively gone without punishment at all, while we are left severely out of pocket for having parked the car in our own drive and gone to bed."

She added: "I am told it is now fairly common for young drivers to take their chances, on the grounds the fines are less than the insurance."

Mrs Scrivener said her family has received no compensation for the damage.

She would like to see the law changed to provide higher fines for uninsured drivers.

And she said if courts were able to impose fines which are at least twice the cost of the original insurance, it would deter people from driving without it.

But her appeal to Old Bexley and Sidcup MP Derek Conway to press for changes to the law fell on deaf ears.

He said although he had sympathy for the Scriveners, the separation of courts from the political process was "ultimately for the good of the country".

Mr Conway added: "I see no prospect of the Government amending the law in this matter."

The accident was just one in a series suffered by the Scriveners and their neighbours, caused by drivers failing to negotiate the roundabout at the end of the North Cray Road dual carriageway.