Crushwatch recovers uninsured cars worth £11.2m

West Yorkshire has seen more vehicles recovered for finance companies than any other area outside London.

New figures from automotive data experts HPI reveals that West Yorkshire Police has reunited finance companies with over £840k worth of uninsured vehicles in June alone.

The figures are revealed as part of HPI’s Crushwatch initiative, which helped finance and leasing companies recover over £11.2m worth of uninsured vehicles across the whole of the UK in June.

West Yorkshire’s figures are higher than other regional forces including Greater Manchester Police (801k), Cheshire Constabulary (£745k) and Police Scotland (£642k). Metropolitan Police saved over £3m worth of vehicles in the same period.

£122M of vehicles were confiscated from uninsured drivers and saved from potentially being crushed or sold at auction in 2018 including supercars such as Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys and Aston Martins.

High-value vehicles were among more than 10,000 cars that were seized by police across the UK in June after their drivers were found not to have valid insurance, of which 1,167 belonged to finance and leasing companies. Without Crushwatch the cars could either be sold on, usually via motor auction networks or scrapped, without the finance company ever being aware.

Crushwatch doesn’t just recover supercars with mainstream models making up the bulk of the most commonly recovered vehicles, with the BMW, Mercedes Benz, Vauxhall, Ford and Volkswagen making up the top five recovered makes.

Barry Shorto, head of industry relations at HPI, said, ‘Crushwatch continues to show that it has a valid part to play in preventing uninsured drivers from remaining on the roads. In just one month, we’ve seen the total value of the cars recovered locally by West Yorkshire police exceed £840k and by police forces nationally it was a staggering £11 million. The figures are edging up year on year which means the problem persists.

‘Through ongoing collaboration with police forces throughout the UK, we can continue to minimise losses and increasingly get the problem under control. It is essential that drivers understand that it is not okay to drive without the necessary insurance.’