West Yorkshire Police made close to £3m from auctioning more than 7,000 seized vehicles in the last four years, it can be revealed.

The number of seized vehicles that were either scrapped or auctioned rocketed to 9,787 in 2017-16, up from 6,917 on the previous year.

Last year the auction income was just over £891,000, up from the previous year’s total of around £523,000.

The total amount raised from auctions in the past four years was £2.7m, according to figures published following a Freedom of Information request.

A spokesman said not all of the income came back to the force as some was paid to recovery operators and to cover the costs of court confiscation orders.

One of the cars that has been seized by Dewsbury and Mirfield Neighbourhood Policing Team due to the driver having no insurance, license, an MOT or having paid road tax. The vehicles were also deemed to be in dangerous conditions.

The force spokesman said: “The proceeds resulting from the auctioning of unclaimed seized vehicles are used to contribute to the costs of recovery charged by the recovery operator as part of the vehicle recovery contract.

“Proceeds are also used to cover the costs of Confiscation Orders while the remainder is paid into the general Vehicle Recovery Unit budget via the finance department.”

The figures showed that 4,380 seized vehicles were scrapped and 1,588 auctioned in 2013-14; 3,512 scrapped and 1,236 auctioned in 2014-15; 5,397 scrapped and 1.520 auctioned in 2015-16 and 7,047 scrapped and 2,740 auctioned in 2016-17.

The auction incomes were:

* £856,468 in 2013-14

* £447,249 in 2014-15

* £523,055 in 2015-16

* £891,618 in 2016-17

There was no information available on what money the Force made from vehicles being scrapped.