Men have more convictions

Male motorists are almost one-and-a-half times more likely to have a driving conviction than female motorists, according to findings from the AA's portfolio of over one million insurance customers.

Overall, 18% of motorists have at least one conviction to their name while 4% have two or more. This compares with 14% in a similar AA survey carried out a decade ago.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, says: "The vast majority of convictions - 85% of them - are for speeding offences. Second most likely offence is for jumping traffic lights (9%) while a worrying 2% are drink-drive offences. Men are more than twice as likely to have a drink-drive conviction than women.

"The next two most common convictions are for driving without insurance (1.5%) and the relatively new offence of driving whilst using a hand-held mobile telephone (1.3%)."

Most law-abiding in Northern Ireland

The UK's most law-abiding motorists are in Northern Ireland with just 9% of men and 6% of women with motoring convictions. Those in the Midlands top the league table - with 31.5% of men and 16.6% of women having been caught on the wrong side of motoring law.

Douglas says: "Most people won't be surprised to find that younger drivers are most likely to have convictions. Almost a quarter of men in the 25-34 age-bracket (23.4%) have at least one motoring conviction. Men aged 25-34 and 35-44 are equally likely to have two or more convictions (6.3%).

"But for women, those aged 35-44 are more likely to have picked up a motoring offence with 18% overall having done so, 4% with two or more to their name."

Women catching up

"It's also noticeable that the gap between men and women with convictions is closing. A decade ago, 11% of women had convictions; today it's 15%, a rise of 4%. And today 20% of men have a conviction, a rise of 3%."

Men drive on average, 20% further than women, according to the latest Department for Transport statistics. However, this compares with a 40% difference in 2002 which accounts for the narrowing conviction gap," Douglas suggests.

"In 2003, the point at which premiums for both sexes became similar was at about age 60, now it's between 45 and 50.

“This is because more women are becoming car owners, they are driving more often and further and are thus more likely to be involved in accidents - as well as commit driving offences," Douglas says.

Convictions count

"But whatever your age or sex, insurers take notice of driving offences, especially multiple offenders and this is reflected in premiums. That's because regular offenders are much more likely to make an insurance claim than those who have a clean license.

Tiger.co.uk said almost half of males claim to be perfect drivers (41%) compared to only 35% of women.

Almost twice as many male drivers admitted needing to stop eating and drinking, reading a map, and even changing clothes behind the wheel than their female counterparts (17% vs. 10%).

Almost twice as many men (6%) check out how good looking other drivers are compared to women (3%)