Children as young as 11 arrested for drink driving

Children as young as 11-years-old have been caught drink driving in the UK, police records have revealed.

An average of 1,000 children aged under 18 are caught drink driving every year in the UK

The data released by 43 UK police forces in response to a Freedom of Information request by Nextbase, an in-car camera company, showed 6,558 people under the age of 18 were caught driving under the influence of alcohol between 2008 and 2013.

More than a quarter were under 16 and all were uninsured.

The 11-year-old drunk driver was caught in the Thames Valley area in 2011, while 12-year-olds were also caught in Scotland in 2012 and Manchester in 2008.

“Underage driving is illegal and no person under the age of 17 should be driving a car,” a Department for Transport spokesman said. “We have tough laws in place to tackle those caught driving without a licence.

“Drink driving is a menace that costs lives, and the government is strengthening the law to help police crack down on this problem.”

While underage drink driving is not an isolated problem according to figures, the biggest affected region in the UK was Greater Manchester, where 409 under-18s have been arrested for drink driving offences over the past six years.

Rural areas also returned some of the highest offending rates, including Hampshire (276), Devon and Cornwall (241) and Sussex (160).

Generally speaking, the number of underage drunk drivers caught has fallen year-on-year, however several areas such as South Yorkshire, Northumbria, Thames Valley, Kent, West Mercia, Staffordshire, South Wales, Cheshire and Cambridgeshire saw an increase in 2013.