Woman of 20 quoted £50,000 for car cover

Leah Greaves of Legram Street, Bradford, was delighted when she passed her driving test three months ago but since then the student has been unable to find an insurer.

She even contacted her local MP to see whether he could help after she was quoted £53,000 for cover.

Miss Greaves said: “I’m having to walk everywhere and catch buses because of the ridiculous situation I find myself in.

“It was tough passing my test and I thought all the hard work was over and I was so excited and over the moon about passing but it turned out that that was just the start.

“Since then the lowest quotation I have had was £4,000 and it seems that the older the car you have the more money it costs to insure it which seems odd.”

After Mr Ward brought the matter to Parliament, Prime Minister David Cameron was asked to clamp down on insurers.

The Bradford East MP yesterday said: “I raised Leah’s case with the Prime Minister because it is a good illustration of a system that is clearly broken.

“Everyone expects less experienced drivers to pay a bit more but for a 20-year-old to be quoted these amounts is just obscene.

“It cannot be acceptable that we have a situation where thousands of young people in Bradford are simply deemed not worth ensuring for any reasonable price.

“This issue is starting to have a huge impact on people’s quality of life and the Government now has to step in and do something about it.”

n Young motorists hard hit by high car insurance costs have received a welcome respite in the last few weeks, according to figures from the AA yesterday.

Annual premium costs for drivers aged 17 to 22 fell by 5.6 per cent in April-June compared with the January-March period.

Although annual premiums for all drivers increased 3.6 per cent in April to June this year, this was the lowest quarterly rise for 18 months.

The lowest rise – 0.7 per cent – in England was in the Border and Tyne Tees areas while premiums in Scotland remained the cheapest of all with a £556 average.