Police have now seized over one hundred thousand cars including many expensive luxury cars that will be auctioned off or crushed if the owners do not pay the fines.
In the UK police have the power to seize cars where the owner does not have the correct car insurance to drive the vehicle. Once a vehicle has been seized there are fines & fees and a strict process to follow to reclaim it. To collect a vehicle from the police compound special insurance for impounded cars is required.
The police have now made millions of pounds by crushing or selling off seized cars including many luxury and high value cars, such as Bentleys, Lamborghinis and other supercars.
In London alone there have been over 100,000 cars seized and impounded by the police. Just three of these vehicles were worth over a staggering £1 million – a Lamborghini, a Bentley and a crane.
When a luxury car has been impounded it will be sold at auction if the owner does not pay their fines and take out the correct insurance for impounded cars. Lower value cars will likely be crushed and sold as scrap metal.
In two and a half years there have been close to 25,000 cars that were not reclaimed. There are several reasons that impounded cars are not reclaimed, usually relating to the cost of paying fines, fees and the added cost of a specialist seized car insurance policy. These cars alone brought in a total of over £5.5 million in sales.
Some of the most valuable cars that have been seized include an Aston Martin DB5, customised Lamborghinis, Mercedes & Porsches. An orange Lamborghini Aventador sold for £218,000 because it was not collected from the compound as the driver was unable to secure seized car insurance.
All money raised by the sale of impounded vehicles has been put back into further operations to clamp down on illegal drivers on Britains roads. In the last twelve months the police have been able to remove 39,000 cars from the road.
Driving without valid car insurance is the most common reason for cars being impounded. For the offence of driving uninsured you can receive 6 penalty points on your license and be fined £300. Added to these costs will be storage fees from the police compound and the price of an impounded car insurance policy.
According to police uninsured drivers are 5 times more likely to have an accident or to be involved in criminal activity. It is such statistics that cause most insurance companies not to offer insurance for seized cars.
