Police are battling a sharp rise in “criminal driving” in Angus.
A senior Angus solicitor has described the increase as “unhealthy” while a road safety charity warned of more fatal crashes on the county’s roads if the trend continues.
Dangerous driving offences went up from 50 to 131 across the county in the past year which was a 162% rise.
There was also a 311% rise in disqualified driving offences with 37 last year compared to just nine in 2014/15.
Robin Beattie, senior solicitor at Thorntons in Arbroath, said: “It is obviously extremely concerning to see a 311% increase in the number of cases of individuals driving whilst disqualified as compared to the same period last year.
“There has also been an unhealthy increase of cases involving uninsured drivers and driving without a valid licence.
“Driving whilst disqualified is an extremely serious offence.
“By taking to the wheel after being disqualified, it may be considered that the individual has shown disrespect to the court that imposed the original driving ban.
“In such cases, a prison sentence is a very real possibility.
“Such is the severity of this crime that one would ordinarily expect the Sheriff to request background reports prior to imposing a sentence.
“If the individual is fortunate enough to avoid a jail sentence, they should expect a longer disqualification to be imposed together with a substantial fine or an order to carry out unpaid work in the community.”
People caught without a driving licence went up 147% from 100 to 247 while speeding offences increased by 9.9% from 1,887 to 2,074.
A 110% rise in the number of people caught driving without insurance (up from 222 to 468) was also recorded in Angus.
Tragically the number of fatalities also increased on roads in Angus last year from five to eight which was a 60% rise.
The number of people seriously injured did drop from 34 to 24 while slight injuries on the county’s roads also went down from 142 to 101.
Alice Bailey from Brake said: “Traffic laws are there to keep us all safe and if they are broken we risk more fatal crashes.
“Tragically eight more families in the Angus region have learned how that feels this last year.
“Crashes are preventable and lives can and will be saved if people just drive safely and within the law.”
Seat belt offences did drop from 197 to 58 last year while mobile phone offences also went down from 147 to 83.
A spokesperson for the Motor Insurers’ Bureau said: “Every year, thousands of people are injured and killed by uninsured drivers.
“They pose a real threat to other motorists and road users and have an impact on the premiums paid by the honest law-abiding motorist.
“Tackling uninsured driving is a route through to addressing other driving offences and areas of criminality and since 2005, when police were granted powers to seize vehicles, the number of uninsured drivers has reduced by 50% to current levels of one million.”
Steve Barrett, head of car insurance at Churchill, said: “Uninsured drivers are still a major issue, despite measures put in place to try to improve the situation.
“There needs to be greater investment in police resources to check that the motorists behind the wheel are insured to drive the vehicle.
“It’s shocking that someone can have almost 30 points on their licence but still be able to drive.
“We need to crack down on these irresponsible drivers and put even tougher laws in place to ensure our roads remain safe.”
