In the last episode of Top Gear (BBC1 Sunday evening), the team referenced ‘fronting’ as a way to keep young driver car insurance costs down but this is illegal.

Fronting on car insurance happens when parents insure their child’s car in their name as the main driver and then add the child as another driver, but the main driver is in fact the child.

This is done to keep the child’s car insurance costs down but it is illegal.

A better option is to take steps to keep the young driver car insurance costs down and to get the best cover for the best price.

There are many comparison websites available where you can compare car insurance, including such as Gocompare.com, Confused.com and moneysupermarket.com.

As Hayley Parsons, chief executive of Gocompare.com commented, ‘An insurance policy is a contract based on trust and you are obliged to tell the insurer of anything that could influence their decision in offering cover - the age and experience of a driver are both important facts. ‘

She added ‘As well as being illegal, fronting is a false economy. Insurers are wise to the practice and many now set the price according to the age of the youngest driver on the policy.’

To be fair, Richard Hammond, one of the Top Gear team, did say ‘if you do decide to put yourself on your parents insurance and you have a crash, and the insurance company find out that it wasn’t really your car….they won’t pay out, then they can prosecute you and you have to go to jail….’

This really is a case of ‘honesty is the best policy’.