Motorists stopped by police checking lack of insurance, failure to wear seatbelts and use of mobile phones

Andrew Robinson

RECKLESS motorists who drive without insurance or seatbelts have been hit hard in a renewed crackdown by West Yorkshire Police.

An operation in Batley saw 66 drivers stopped and given fixed penalty fines for failing to wear seatbelts and a further 13 were caught for using a mobile phone while driving.

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In Bradford, which has one of the worst records in the country for uninsured driving according to insurance industry figures, a further nine cars have been taken off the streets by police officers using hi-tech equipment to detect insurance dodgers.

North Bradford police have warned uninsured drivers they are coming after them with Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, which can detect uninsured and untaxed cars in seconds.

In a recent two-day operation in Allerton Road and Fairweather Green, Bradford, police seized nine cars.

The cars can be crushed if the owners fail to pay release fees and provide a valid insurance document.

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Several arrests were also made, including one for drink -driving.

In the operation in Fairweather Green, led by Pc Sam Hollins, officers seized four uninsured cars and also issue fixed penalty notices to nine drivers for speeding and two for using mobile phones behind the wheel.

The weekend of action followed a similar initiative in Keighley and Shipley last week in which eight cars were seized for no insurance.

A police spokesman said: “Cars which are found to be uninsured are automatically seized by police and risk being crushed or scrapped unless the drivers can prove they have been made legal to return to the roads.”

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Insp Steve Greenbank of the North Bradford policing team, said: “We are very pleased with the result of our weekend operations which saw us seize one car on Allerton Road so quickly it happened before we had even finished setting up.

Drivers need to be aware that we are not prepared to tolerate uninsured driving and we are doing something about it, increasingly with the help of very sophisticated new tools.”

A crackdown on road traffic and other offences in the Batley area led to 36 arrests, including for burglary, drug possession, assaults, criminal damage, theft and breach of the peace.

Roads policing officers handed out 66 fixed penalty notices to Batley drivers not wearing seatbelts and a further 13 to people caught using their mobile phones while driving.

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A further 15 vehicles were also seized for document offences.

Police action was also taken against anti-social behaviour and underage drinking problems, both of which have been highlighted by residents.

Police in the Batley area seized a large amount of alcohol from under-age children during the recent crackdown.

Officers confiscated three bottles of vodka, one bottle of wine and 46 cans of lager.

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Those caught drinking were warned about their conduct and a letter was sent to their parents.

A joint operation between the Police and Kirklees Council targeted cars for sale on the roadside along Halifax Road, Staincliffe.

Local residents and businesses have complained about private traders using the highway as a sales pitch.

The Kirklees Council Cabinet member responsible for communities, Peter O’Neill, said the council had worked alongside other agencies to make places like Batley safer, and added: “This operation demonstrates our policy of tackling, not tolerating, anti-social behaviour.”