An elderly woman with dementia has been convicted of failing to insure her car – despite her living in a nursing home and no longer having a driving licence.
The pensioner, 93, from Dudley in the West Midlands, was prosecuted by DVLA in September last year when they discovered that the insurance on her Ford had expired.
In a handwritten letter, the woman explained that due to her diagnosis, she had not driven since November 10, 2023, but the car had been ‘kept on the drive’ during this time, the Evening Standard reports.
She confessed to having ‘overlooked’ making a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) for the motor but said her disease had caused her to hide mail – leaving her family unable to access her letters.
The woman also disclosed that she had spent November in a care facility recuperating from a stroke.
Because it wasn’t in the public interest, the prosecutor, DVLA, had the option to drop the case.
However, this was overlooked because of the Single Justice Procedure’s expedited nature.
The pensioner was convicted on a guilty plea at Taunton magistrates court last month.
She was given a six-month conditional discharge, meaning no financial penalty, but still has a criminal conviction.
On Thursday, the administration opened a consultation to change the SJP system.
Proposed changes include making it an obligation for prosecutors to read mitigation letters and making it compulsory for agencies like DVLA to engage with potentially vulnerable defendants.
The consultation is expected to conclude on May 8, but the SJP system will continue to operate until then.
A DVLA spokesperson said: ‘We urge anyone who receives a letter about potential enforcement action to get in touch with us if there are mitigating circumstances we need to know about.
‘A Single Justice Procedure notice will only be issued when we have exhausted all other enforcement routes, including issuing multiple items of correspondence, to which the customer can respond to DVLA with their mitigation.
‘Once progressed to SJP, any defendant can request a hearing in open court, but for those pleading guilty via SJP, including those with mitigating action, are considered by a magistrate. These can be referred back to DVLA but whether or not to do so is a decision taken by the magistrate.’
Picking on the weak and defenceless while others get away with everything has become the standard in the UK.
This goes to show that the UK has gone off the rails. There is literally no hope if we are prosecuting a 93-year-old with dementia for not registering her car.
Does our government really hate pensioners that much, or are they just a soft target? This was an utterly meaningless conviction and a waste of time, money and resources.
Authorities want quick wins to maintain high conviction rates when drug traffickers, murderers, and worse are free to roam the streets, and what moron told her to plead guilty? The violation was driving without insurance, yet she didn’t even drive the car. This is a total disgrace.
Is this country devoid of common sense?
This is a despicable way to treat our elderly, but then, we no longer matter!
Meanwhile, several million migrants come to the UK and commit any crime they like.
They probably don’t look at the insurance records and driver’s licenses of Uber drivers and others, particularly those who park outside fast food restaurants. Many of those guys shouldn’t even be driving on our roads, and I doubt that many of them don’t even know the highway code or speak English.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 