For those of you who thought having your car seized would be bad enough, imagine what it would be like to have it crushed. That's exactly what happened to thousands of motorists in Manchester, England, where local police claim to have crushed more than 10,000 cars since January last year after being issued new powers.

Along with new these new powers, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras were fitted to cars with software that checks surrounding vehicle number plates against various databases to determine whether the car is unregistered, uninsured or even belonging to a driver wanted for a crime. Altogether over 25,000 cars have been seized so far by the Greater Manchester Police.

According to Manchester Evening News, uninsured drivers are six times more likely to have convictions for driving non-roadworthy vehicles and nine times more likely to have convictions for drink-driving.

Along with the seizure of their vehicle, drivers are charged with a £105 fee for recovery, a £12 a day storage fee, and a £200 on-the-spot fine. If the owner does not recover their car within two weeks, the car is crushed, scrapped or sold. It might just be time to double-check your insurance policy’s expiration date.