According to research from Britannia Rescue a staggering five million British Drivers are currently driving unsafe vehicles. The number of hazardous cars on UK roads is thought to be boosted by people keeping their older cars for longer to benefit from the Government’s scrappage scheme.

The most common repair faults identified among these cars include driving with worn tyres (12%), having defective brakes (9%) and faulty exhaust pipes (6%). In addition, one in 20 have broken or missing wing mirrors and a similar number (5%) have broken head or tail lights.

There are strict laws governing the state of repair of vehicles and driving a damaged car can result in three points on your licence plus a fine. More importantly, vehicle defects were responsible for around 2,500 crashes in 2008 and 1 in 30 fatal motoring accidents, according to the Department for Transport.

Unfortunately motorists do not realise that they are potentially invalidating their car insurance as it is condition that vehicles must be maintained. There are also strict laws governing the state of repairs and driving a faulty vehicle can result in 3 points added to a driving license in addition to a fine if caught.