Scotland Yard is making £5.5 million a year from selling or crushing uninsured cars seized from motorists on London’s streets, it was revealed today.
The cash windfall comes from the sale or destruction of around 24,500 cars seized by the Met which have not been claimed by their owners in the past two and half years.
Drivers who are stopped for driving with no insurance also have to pay £200 fines to reclaim their car once they have obtained proper insurance.
The Met announced today that they had seized 100,000 cars since the launch of the Operation Cubo drive against illegal motorists in October 2011.
Uninsured cars seized by police have included a range of luxury models including Ferraris, Range Rovers, Mercedes, BMWs and a Lamborghini and a Bentley.
In one case police were forced to hand back a £200,000 Ferrari supercar after the billionaire son of a Saudi sheikh reclaimed the vehicle and paid its insurance.
Police say they are using the profits from the operation to pay for projects to tackle road tax fraud, burglary and further operations against criminals who drive on London’s roads.
Commander Stephen Watson, the head of Operation Cubo, said: “Our officers are targeting criminals who are using London’s roads to carry guns, drugs and stolen property and by denying them the use of the road we are denying them the ability to harm Londoners.”
Police say research shows that 78 per cent of people who drove uninsured cars had previous criminal convictions.
Around 2,700 drivers have been arrested in the Cubo operation with suspects wanted for murder, predatory paedophiles, people wanted for rape, drugs and possession of firearms.
