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Wolverhampton amongst worst spots for uninsured cars

Wolverhampton and Smethwick are among the worst areas for uninsured vehicles, new figures have revealed.

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The figures have been revealed as part of a motor insurance enforcement awareness week in the West Midlands.

The initiative, called Operation Drive, targeted motorists in Walsall on Tuesday, seizing 20 uninsured vehicles.

The Motor Insurers' Bureau and the National Roads Policing Intelligence Forum run the operation.

It has revealed that 11 of the top 20 postal districts for uninsured vehicles are in the West Midlands.

Eleventh of the list is the WV2 postcode – All Saints, Blakenhall and Parkfields.

The B66 post code – which is Soho and Victoria in Smethwick – is 16th in the list.

In the West Midlands an estimated 3.17 per cent out of 3.7 million vehicles are not insured – 117,000 vehicles.

Insurance-evading motorists face a £300 fine, six points on licences and seizure vehicle. Neil Drane, head of enforcement services at MIB, said: "Working in partnership and collaborating in this way we are determined to reduce uninsured driving numbers in the UK.

"Nationally, we have managed to reduce the estimated total number of uninsured drivers from two million in 2005 to one million now.

"However this figure is still too high and is a burden on all honest motorists."

Detective Superintendent Paul Keasey, the National Police Chiefs Council's Head of National Roads Policing Intelligence Forum, said: "We are delighted to be backing this awareness week. It will see police operations mounted across many areas of the UK targeting potential uninsured drivers, including daily operations in the West Midlands and London where we know the problem is acute in some areas.

"With ever-improving technology including the police's widespread use of AutomaticNumber Plate Recognition, the message from all our police forces is: you will be caught."

Police aim to seize around 3,000 vehicles per week this year.

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