Supercars worth £7 million ($9.4 million), including a pair of identical purple Lamborghinis, have been confiscated by police in London in a crackdown on uninsured vehicles.
The operation was in response to antisocial and dangerous driving across the upmarket Hyde Park, Kensington and Chelsea areas of the city which are popular with visitors from the Middle East.
The cars were seized from owners who shipped their cars to Britain without proper insurance cover or mistakenly relied on policies taken out in their home countries.
One of the drivers of the Lamborghinis had been in the country for just two hours and had only been driving for 15 minutes before the car was seized.
In total 72 cars, including Ferraris and Porches, were seized by the Met Police, who used Automatic Number Plate Recognition to identify them as uninsured by checking on a database run by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB).
The force said the operation began in response to local residents' complaints about antisocial and dangerous driving by uninsured cars, a regular feature in central London’s streets.
The nationalities of the cars’ owners has not been revealed but one of the vehicles has “London, Paris, Kuwait” written on the bonnet, along with what appears to be the route of how the car made it to Britain.
Special Chief Officer James Deller, who took part in the operation, said: “This operation was set up to respond to resident, business and visitors’ concerns about high-value vehicles causing a nuisance in known hotspot areas in central and west London.”
Police also found people wanted for actual bodily harm and criminal damage, drug offences, vehicle theft, immigration offences and holding fraudulent insurance policies.
Several tickets were issued for a range of offences, including driving without a valid licence; using a mobile phone while driving; lack of a valid MOT; illegally tinted windows; not wearing a seat belt; and operating vehicles in a dangerous condition.
The enforcement was backed by the MIB, an industry body that campaigns against uninsured driving. Its staff worked alongside the police. These offences often overlap with wider criminal activity including drug running, drink-driving, speeding and money laundering.
“While many offenders knowingly broke the law, others fell victim to simple mistakes such as bounced payments, failed renewals or incorrect details,” said Martin Saunders, head of uninsured driving prevention at the MIB.
“These rules apply to all motorists, regardless of the value of vehicle they choose to drive.”
Last year, police in London confiscated 60 supercars in a clampdown on antisocial behaviour on London's roads.
