Motorists in North Wales are most likely to get back a seized set of wheels but less likely to see their car again in the West Midlands.
With 212,000 vehicles being impounded across the UK, just how many of these seized vehicles are actually returned to their owners?
It is a quested posed by Confused.com which analysed Freedom of Information data from police forces across the UK to reveal how many seized vehicles are returned to their owners, as well as expert advice on how to reclaim your vehicle if it is impounded by police.
Impounded and released
If the police seize a vehicle, you can recover it in certain circumstances. Of the 44 police forces contacted, 21 provided both the number of seizures and the number of vehicles recovered by owners.
Across these 21 areas, 172,694 vehicles were seized, with 114,076 being returned to the registered keeper. That means that roughly a third of seized vehicles are not returned to their owners.
The area with the highest recovery rate is North Wales, where 76.41% of seized vehicles were returned. That compares to just 57.53% in the West Midlands, which had the fewest vehicles returned.
If you have your vehicle impounded, it’s possible to reclaim it. But the process isn’t necessarily straightforward.