200 children in West Midlands and Staffordshire caught drinking and driving
More than 200 children have been being caught drinking and driving across the West Midlands and Staffordshire, police records show.
The youngest caught in Staffordshire was in 2010 aged 13 and in the West Midlands a 14-year-old was caught in the same year.
The youngest caught in the West Mercia region was 15.
See also: Walsall teen banned for drink driving just three weeks after passing test.
Across the West Midlands, 131 children have been arrested for drink-driving across the region since 2008, according to police figures obtained by in-car camera provider Nextbase.
The figure for Staffordshire was 31 and 75 across West Mercia.
The statistics showed there were an average of five underage (18 years old or younger) drink-drivers caught across the UK each week since 2008.
The figures showed that the worst English region for underage drink-driving in this period was Greater Manchester where 409 under-18s were arrested.
Other hotspots included Scotland, with 718 drink-drive offenders from 2008 to 2013, Hampshire (276 offenders), Devon and Cornwall (241) and Sussex (160).
Nextbase said the total number of underage drunk-driver incidents had fallen year-on-year, but a number of police areas had seen an increase from 2012 to 2013 including in Staffordshire and West Mercia.
Nextbase spokesman Bryn Brooker said: "Uninsured drivers on UK roads pose a huge threat to the safety of the vast majority of responsible motorists and pedestrians.
"These threats come in many forms and today's findings go to show that it's not just those who illegally choose not to buy insurance. Motorists have to be aware of such threats and take appropriate measures to mitigate the risk."
