'Shocking number of children' caught driving without insurance, report reveals
Nearly 1,000 teenagers and children, including one as young as 11, were convicted of driving without insurance in 2014, according to new figures.
Numbers rose to a total of 991 under-17s, an increase of more than a fifth in two years, data released by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) showed.
The RAC, which obtained the statistics through Freedom of Information requests, said the number of offences was just the "tip of the iceberg".
Boys had 32 times the number of convictions, at 961, as girls (30) in 2014, while the youngest boy was aged just 11 and the youngest girl just 12.
In total, 12 boys and one girl aged 12 and 27 boys and one girl aged 13 were convicted in the same year.
RAC Insurance director Mark Godfrey said: "We found there is a shocking number of children who are caught driving before they're even old enough to apply for a provisional licence, let alone have proper instruction.
"Sadly, we may have little choice but to accept there will always be a minority of young males who will be prepared to drive without a licence or insurance."
The recent rise in insurance premium tax (IPT) announced in the Budget by Chancellor George Osborne was "unlikely to be helpful" in reducing number of uninsured younger drivers, he added, suggesting "black box" insurance policies should be exempt from IPT as they encourage safe driving.
Among full driving licence holders, men were three-and-half times more likely to be caught driving uninsured, with some 45,838 men convicted, compared to 12,879 women, in 2014.
The figures suggested there was a 23% rise from 2012 in qualified men over 65 driving without insurance - the oldest being 94 - and a 19% increase in women in the same category, the oldest of whom were 88.
But overall there was a 6% reduction in convictions of full-, provisional- and non-licenced drivers, from 106,233 in 2012 to 100,323 in 2014.
Mr Godfrey added: "It also continues to be the case that men, and indeed boys, are far more likely to be convicted of driving without insurance than women or girls.
"But what is especially worrying is that these figures are really only the tip of the iceberg as the insurance industry estimates there are in the region of one million uninsured drivers on the road. This means only a tenth of drivers thought to be breaking the law in this way have been caught."
He said the rise convictions among over 65s was a "surprise", particularly as the rise in older men being convicted had grown at five times the rate of the rise in over-65 male drivers on UK roads.
