An astonishing one in eight motorists – 13 per cent – have taken to the roads without insurance on the car they are driving, research from Moneysupermarket.com has shown.

The vast majority – 69 per cent – simply drove another motorist’s vehicle without cover while the remainder were uninsured behind the wheel at their own vehicle.

The 13 per cent average masks the gender divide – while only nine per cent of women said they had driven uninsured, 17 per cent of men had.

Youth played a strong part in the statistical weighting of the results, too, with only 12 per cent of drivers in their 30s and 40s confessing to driving without cover compared to 29 per cent of motorists under 30.

Insuring a car can cost as much as £1,123 for a male motorist in his 20s, the financial advice site noted, following recent Moneysupermarket research showing that men in their 30s pay half of what those in their twenties, perceived by the industry as risk-prone ‘boy racers’, are charged.

But “anyone who drives without cover is breaking the law and poses a financial risk to themselves and other road users,” moneysupermarket’s head of insurance Richard Mason stressed.

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© Adfero Ltd