Dear Diary – Page 60d (1960’s)

Continued from Page 60c….

I took all the necessary documents to our local police station and ran into a couple of problems.

When they saw my driving license, I was charged with not displaying “L” plates while learning to drive. When they saw the insurance certificate they noted that it had expired 3 hours before I was stopped outside Clacton. I pleaded ignorance on the basis that it was not my insurance policy but they charged me with driving without insurance anyway. Finally, they charged my Dad with letting me ride his scooter without insurance!

He was very indignant about his involvement and, when we went to court to contest the charges, he made his feelings well known.

I could not defend my riding without “L” plates but thought I could plead “first offense” and get away with a small fine. That was poor judgement on my part because I was fined quite heavily, and my license was endorsed (three endorsements = license invalid). They overlooked my insurance situation.

My Dad tried to defend his position with the expired insurance policy after all, who would have known that it would expire at noon? The judge made it quite clear that he expected my Dad to have known when his own insurance expired and levied a reasonable fine. Dad, sadly, did not let this go without protesting strongly and the judge tried to pacify him unsuccessfully. My Dad blurted out something about a “jumped up kangaroo court” at which point the judge endorsed his license as well!

It was an interesting, and educational, experience in so many ways. I shall never forget my Dad telling the judge what he thought about the legal process, and how the judge responded! It was one of a number of experiences that made me see the absolute truth in  “Choose your battles!”  I have used that philosophy so many times over the years!

18 thoughts on “Dear Diary – Page 60d (1960’s)”

  4. Expiry time on insurance documents, yep, can identify with that!
    We almost got caught last year whilst changing companies, and would have actually had an uninsured vehicle on the road for 12 hours (would have been just our luck to get caught and fined, even if we didn’t drive it anywhere). Updating the mew policy to run when the current expired one expired was a farce, as the new policy had to be cancelled and another raised. The premuim more than doubled, but the company said they would honour the original amount, and it was sorted after a 45 minute phone call (from a call box to a freephone number). We changed insurers because our existing one only had three options for where vehicles were kept overnight……. garage, drive or road. Our car is in a secure gated private car park, but this didn’t register as anything other than ‘road’, and even though we had both been with the same company for 8 years, and had updated their records when we moved here, they still wanted to sting us an extra £300. Bye Bye over 50s insurers.

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  7. Oh dear! It often pays to keep your mouth shut, and this would have been the perfect time!
    Still, you do come away feeling it was unfair – and never forgetting ever again just when your insurance expires!

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