Belt Up


I enjoyed this piece from the Funny Old World column - which is a regular feature in Private Eye.

Amazing that the police allowed this nonsense to continue for so long - before finally admitting their mistake.  

FUNNY OLD WORLD

COMPILED BY VICTOR LEWIS-SMITH

"I was riding my motorbike through High Wycombe," Paul Booker told reporters in Blackbird Leys, Oxford, "and the police were pulling people over. I didn't think I'd done anything wrong, but the officer looked my bike over, said I had an incorrectly-sized registration plate, and told me he was going to book me.

I didn't pay much attention to what he was writing, you don't really, do you? I just accepted it and drove off. It was only later, when I read the fixed penalty notice, that I saw I'd been booked for not wearing a seat belt.

I don't mind paying a fine if I have genuinely done something wrong, but to fine me for not wearing a seat belt when I am riding a bike is ridiculous. I went to Cowley police station next day, to see if they would tear it up, but they said they couldn't do anything. And when I phone Oxford police station, they said there was nothing they could do either. If this goes to court, it will cost the taxpayer money, and I'll have to take a day off work to tell them what happened. I'm only kicking up a fuss to stop them wasting everyone's time and money.

After being contacted by journalists, spokeswoman Francine Rodriguez of Thames Valley Police said 'I can confirm that a fixed penalty notice was issued to a motorcyclist with the wrong penalty code, driving without a seat belt. The notice has been withdrawn'.

(Oxford Mail, 22/2/13, Spotter: David Bratley)      

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