Car Insurance News from Be Wiser

Thousands Of Motorists Are Driving With Expired License

More than 40,000 motorists risk being fined up to £1,000 because they are unwittingly driving without a valid licence.

Drivers have to pay £17.50 to renew their card, which will earn the Treasury an estimated £437million over 25 years.

New DVLA figures have shown that just 128,987 of those drivers have renewed their licences, leaving 44,880 currently driving with an invalid licence.

Thousands of drivers could be unwittingly breaking the law because they do not realise that their photo card licence has expired. The new-style licences were launched in July 2008 but, unlike the paper versions they replaced, the photo cards expire after 10 years.

The AA fears that those who "fall through the cracks in the database" either because they have moved house or because the letter fails to arrive will be left unaware of the need to renew.

It is essential that driving license’s are updated every ten years to ensure the police and other enforcement agencies have the best possible tool to help them correctly identify whether a driving licence is being used fraudulently, and so help prevent driving licence impersonation stopping disqualified and perhaps dangerous drivers taking to the roads.

Motoring organisations said most drivers believed, wrongly, that their new-style licence was for life and blamed the Government for the fiasco.

However once motorists have received notification of renewal it is then up to them to get a new license or run the risk of a getting caught and being lumped with a hefty fine.

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