A brand new report has revealed that in 2023, UK police forces seized roughly 214,051 autos from our roads.
The best focus of car seizures occurred in Dundee, with 23,344 autos possessed by the police power final yr.
Nationwide Scrap Automobile submitted an FOI to all 45 police forces within the UK and collated the info from the 23 responses they obtained.
The outcomes revealed that uninsured/ untaxed autos, highway visitors collisions and stolen autos had been the commonest causes for the forces to take motion.
Dundee noticed the best variety of automobile seizures, adopted by the West Midlands with 23,203 seized autos and Better Manchester with 22,317.
Dorry Potter, automotive professional at Nationwide Scrap Automobile commented:
“There are a number of explanation why the police can take a automobile, whether or not it has been utilized in a criminal offense, deserted, thought of a nuisance or danger, or if the automobile is uninsured or untaxed.
“As soon as a automobile has been impounded by the police, some autos are returned to their house owners whereas others are offered at public sale and others are scrapped. This all is dependent upon the state of the automobile, together with whether or not the unique proprietor of the automobile will be contacted.
“By conducting this examine we wished to seek out out what elements of the nation had the best quantity of impounded autos, together with the primary causes behind why so many autos are stored in automotive kilos up and down the nation.”
The info revealed that 59% of the reported seized autos had been returned to their house owners, nevertheless over one in six of those autos ended up being destroyed and an additional 12,939 (6%) autos had been offered at public sale.
The commonest purpose for a automobile to be impounded throughout the UK was as a result of automobile having no insurance coverage or authorized licence, which implies the automobile doesn’t abide by Part 165 of the Highway Visitors Act 1988.
You might be required by regulation to carry a full, legitimate driving licence, with the one exception being learner drivers who maintain provisional licences. Moreover, below motoring regulation, anybody utilizing a automobile on the highway or one other public place should have legitimate insurance coverage towards third get together dangers. This consists of autos that are merely parked on public roads and never being pushed.
Drivers who don’t abide by these legal guidelines can face fines, driving bans and within the case right here, see their autos seized.
56,707 autos had been impounded for having no insurance coverage or licence, with the best quantity within the West Midlands with 7,339 autos seized within the 12 month interval.
The second commonest purpose is highway visitors collisions with 49,278 incidents resulting in automobile seizures. Dundee had the best variety of incidents with 8,608 automobiles possessed by the police in that interval.
In these occasions, the automobiles are sometimes seized as a result of they’re not in a road-worthy state following the accident, or are being stored as proof by the police. An extra 1,978 autos had been seized on this interval attributable to critical or deadly accidents.
