Car Insurance - ANPR "Spy" Cameras

Many of you will have seen those little cameras at the side of the road that look suspiciously like speed cameras, but without the obvious yellow exterior that gives the game away.

They are so-called ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras and their purpose is to catch uninsured and unlicensed drivers. "Good", you might think, "It's about time they caught some of them." You'd probably be quite right to say so.

Currently, one in 20 drivers avoid buying motor insurance and the cost to the insurance industry stands at £500m a year. This is passed onto the other 19 out of 20 law-abiding drivers who pay their insurance fees.

This equates to around £30 per policy per year, according to personal finance news site myfinances.co.uk. In an industry where price is deemed of the highest importance to most consumers, this extra £30 can make that elusive cheap car insurance quote yet more difficult to find.

The new detection system clearly works, as around 100,000 cars have been taken off the roads by police since its inception in July 2005.

The problem remains that if you are late renewing your car insurance policy you could be stopped by police under the suspicion that you have no cover. Insurers used to have up to 14 days to update the register as to whether you were insured or not. But a check based on the ANPR system might show you are not insured when you have actually just renewed your policy.

This has now been reduced to a 7-day window period which is good news, but also means that if you are late renewing your policy you could pretty quickly be flagged up as having no insurance.

It is virtually impossible to avoid the system as the cameras are installed on the majority of roads and you will encounter them on at least one part of your journey.

The system is also used by police to quickly check a driver's details on the roadside. Officers can pull you over and find out your insurance and licence details in a matter of seconds.

Indeed, you may now be used to the familiar sight of police vans and their accompanying pursuit cars carrying out spot checks on certain stretches of roads during busy commuting periods. The police can confiscate your vehicle if you cannot produce proof of insurance at the time you are pulled over.

The moral of the story it seems is that it's best to start looking for car insurance quotes several weeks before your renewal is due. You should aim to purchase the new policy a week or two before the old one expires. This is quite possible as you can set the new start date and time pretty precisely, usually to within a minute of the old one expiring.