Points may not mean penalties for drivers

Points may not mean penalties for drivers


Speed cameras force insurer to change policy

An insurance company is no longer automatically penalising motorists with points on their licence due to the rise in the number of speed camera convictions, it was revealed today.

The Swinton insurance company said insurance providers were 'having to accept that points alone can no longer be used as a yardstick for driver evaluation'.

And the company added that drivers with six points or more on their licence could soon be viewed by insurance companies as 'standard' rather than 'non-standard' drivers.

Motorists who incur 12 penalty points over a period of three years are liable to be disqualified.

Penalty points.

Swinton said that with 6,000 speed cameras on the road catching two million speeders every year and drivers using hand-held mobile phones now incurring three-point penalties, 'an unblemished licence is becoming rare'.

Neil Ackinclose of Swinton added: 'Over the last few years we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of drivers with penalty points requesting insurance. A few years ago insurers might have assumed that a motorist with six or more points on their licence was a reckless driver, but that is no longer necessarily the case.