Barely a day goes by without a report about an uninsured driver getting caught in the act across the UK – but more worrying, however, is how many drivers are getting away with it despite the risk of heavy fines and prosecutions.

Now, Cuuver, which compares insurance quotes, has sent out Freedom of Information requests to police forces across England to uncover the number of fines and prosecutions handed out to those driving without insurance during the last five years. In the process it has discovered a surprising hotspot for uninsured drivers.

The region with the highest percentage of uninsured drivers is, in fact, Durham. A total of 1,087 uninsured drivers were recorded over the period – representing 0.57% of the population. Of course Durham was not the city/county with the highest total of uninsured drivers – that disappointing title fell the way of Greater London, with 70,384 uninsured drivers, representing 0.21% of residents, good enough for second place in the percentage list. The rest of the top 10 was made up of Liverpool (0.17%), Warwickshire (0.13%), Oxfordshire (0.12%), Norfolk (0.11%), Surrey (0.10%), South Yorkshire (0.09%) and Staffordshire and the City of London, both with 0.07%.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the scale there was another surprise. The city that came lowest in the ranking was, in fact, Manchester. It averages just 0.02% - despite having a population of 2,782,100 it recorded only 1,800 uninsured drivers.