This is becoming a big problem all over the country. I normally check the "Before the Bench" section of my local free paper, and about 40/50% of offences that are in there are due to driving without insurance/licence/tax/mot.
Shocking! But if you do the math, the fine for driving without insurance is usually cheaper than buying the insurance. That doesn't make it ok, but it will give people the insentive to do it if they're going to save money. Unfortunately, it doesn't save lives.
