Over 80% all motoring offences in Derry City and Strabane are committed by men

Over 80% of all motoring offences in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area are committed by men, a new report has found.

Recent policing data analysed by CompareNI.com shows four times more men than women are committing motoring offences in Northern Ireland.

The data revealed that 82% of offences in Derry and Strabane are committed by men. The data showed that 3,198 offences were committed between June 2021-May 2022 and 3,378 offences were committed between June 2022-May 2023.

The data showed that from the 1st June 2022 to 31st May 2023 males accounted for 32,714 of all motoring offences committed in Northern Ireland.  In comparison, women accounted for just 7,882 of all motoring offences in Northern Ireland during the same time period – meaning 80% of all offences were committed by men.*

The highest number of offences committed by men were for driving without insurance - while the highest number of offences committed by women were for speeding.

Male versus female drivers per region followed the same trend with male drivers committing more offences than females in every policing district across Northern Ireland.  The highest percentage of male to female offences was in Fermanagh and Omagh with 85% male, followed by Newry, Mourne and Down with 83% – with all regions having 75% or more of all offences carried out by males, with an average of 80% across the whole of Northern Ireland. 

The highest number of offences overall were insurance offences, with a total of 7,091 detections, this was an increase of 6% on the number recorded in the previous 12 months. 

Speeding offences were the next biggest and accounted for 17% of all offences during this period. The total number of these offences increased by 301 (5%) since the previous year, to 6,734 between June 2022 and May 2023 with the highest speed recorded by PSNI officers of 140mph, on the M1, Craigavon.

The youngest drivers weren’t the worst offenders, those aged 30-49 years old accounted for over two fifths of all motoring offences – with the top offence being insurance, followed by speeding and careless driving.

Overall, there were 40,671 detections for motoring offences in Northern Ireland in the time period between June 2022 and May 2023 - a decrease of 2% on the 41,685 detections recorded in the previous 12 months.

Commenting on the latest figures, Ian Wilson, Managing Director of CompareNI.com said: “It’s great to see the number of overall road offences in Northern Ireland is continuing to decrease. 

"I am surprised there’s such a difference in the volume of offences between male and female drivers, especially when it comes to insurance offences with 81% of the offences committed by men.

“Insurance offences are now the most committed motoring offence across the country, increasing by 6% in the last 12 months.

“Those caught driving without adequate insurance can face six penalty points, disqualification of driving and a fine of up to £200. Three points on a licence can mean 5% more on an insurance premium every year for the four years an infringement stays on the licence, six points can push up fees by about 25%.

“Although inflation and a rise in the volume of claims has increased car insurance premiums across the board this year on average, there are still savings to be found, drivers can compare competitive quotes using a price comparison site like ours to help make sure they get what they need at a price they can afford.”