Police seized 24 vehicles for not having insurance during a day-long special operation.

Called Operation Cubo, the borough-wide initiative on July 3 aimed to remove illegal drivers from roads.

Statistics show uninsured drivers are more likely to be involved in crime, five times more likely to be involved in collisions and more likely to fail at keeping their vehicle in a roadworthy condition.

Insp Gary Learmonth of Barking and Dagenham Police said: “Traffic operations were held across the borough making use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology which indicates to the operator which vehicles are not properly licensed or insured. This is extremely useful as some illegally driven vehicles are not as easy to spot as you might expect.

“We will continue to use ANPR technology to disrupt crime culture by denying illegal drivers the use of local roads.”

Drivers of seized vehicles have to produce a valid insurance document and driving license to reclaim their vehicle, as well as paying a penalty fine and a charge for every day it has been stored.