Thousands of vehicles without insurance have been seized by Wiltshire Police since 2018 for not having insurance, new figures reveal.
The statistics come as a leading motoring body tells drivers "don't take the risk" by dodging car insurance before hitting the road.
Figures obtained by the AA drivers' association show Wiltshire Police have seized 4,210 uninsured cars since the start of 2018 – including at least 510 so far this year.
The Wiltshire Police Specialist Ops Twitter account, which posts about road policing matters, regularly provides updates about uninsured cars that officers have encountered.
Most recently, on October 3, a driver was caught with no licence, no insurance, an unattached bonnet and a tyre with a cut, down to the cord.
Across the UK, more than half a million motors have been impounded for not having proper insurance over this timeframe.
In 2021, 776 vehicles were seized by police in Wiltshire – equating to one seizure for every 1,000 licensed vehicles in the area as of the end of 2021, one of the lowest rates in the country.
Despite successive lockdowns, 2020 saw the most cars seized in Wiltshire and across the country – nearly 130,000 were taken off UK roads, including 1,018 in the area.
Many forces now use automatic number plate recognition to check whether cars are road-legal, which can instantly tell officers whether vehicles have insurance and an up-to-date MOT.
Gus Park, managing director for AA Insurance Services, said: “Every driver is worried about being involved in a collision, but, worse still, is the other party being uninsured.
“Sadly, we know that when times are hard some people try to cut their costs, and one area people are tempted to change it, is cutting out their motor insurance.
“However, these figures show that forces across the country are on the lookout and will take an uninsured car away.”
The figures cover every force across the four nations, with the exceptions of Kent and Cheshire, which did not provide data to the AA.
The largest force in the UK, the Met Police, confiscated the most vehicles over this period – 62,900 – while the West Midlands and West Yorkshire police forces followed with 44,056 and 33,829 respectively.
Mr Park said drivers should be wary of the penalties for not having insurance.
“Not only is there the chance of having your car seized, but the criminal and financial hardship is not worth the gamble,” he added.
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