Manchester [UK] Police Crushes 10k Cars– And Counting
The Manchester Evening News reports that the local plod have crushed over 10k cars belonging to owners who are wanted for a criminal offense, dare drive without a proper registration or insurance, and/or haven't maintained their vehicle properly. This "bounty" stems from new police confiscation powers enacted in January 2006 and deployment of patrol car-mounted Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras and software (which can identify a car's legitimacy or outstanding warrants attached to the registered keeper in seconds). As awesome as that may be for insurance companies and road safety– "police say uninsured drivers are six times more likely to have convictions for driving un-roadworthy vehicles and nine times more likely to have convictions for drink-driving"– the fines involved are equally staggering. Offending vehicles are hit with a £200 on-the-spot fine; or a larger one meted out later, in court. There's also a £105 charge for recovery, plus £12 a day storage AND offenders get points on their license. As the Greater Manchester Police seized 25k cars during this time frame, without storage charges, we reckon the crackdown has dumped over £4,575,000 in revenues into the City Council's coffers. You know, byproduct-wise.
More by Robert Farago
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You guys realize car insurance isn't required in the United States, right? It's on a state by state basis, and no not all states require it (New Hampshire anyone?)
I would imagine that any car worth having never made it to the crusher anyway. It is probably the Captains new ride.
Insurance may not be mandatory in New Hampshire, but it is in Nebraska and Iowa, two states that I regularly drive in. The problem is that offenders pay ridicuylously low bonds to get out of jail, prosecutors let them off the hook for the offense if they've got something juicier like drugs in the trunk to go after, and the few who are actually punished get off with a $200 fine, no jail, and they get their car back without having to make an ironclad commitment to not using it again until they do get insurance. The least that the state legislators could do is mandate that uninsured cars stay in impound until the owners come up with valid insurance cards. Another scam is that people will buy 1 months' insurance just before buying their one-year tags, let the insurance lapse, and drive 11 months "free". With modern technology, state insurance directors could know daily when people drop one company and fail to pick up another. They could then inform law enforcement, who could tow the cars ASAP. With a stiff fine structure in place for insurance agents who fail to properly file information, "false positives" should be rare.
If the drivers are illegals put them back into the car before processing it.