When are you coming back to DTD? I"d like some of your donations next time at the cash tables please!
But I"m guessing you won"t be asking him for a lift ?
He"d get me home in good time!
I got stopped for speeding leaving DTD back in November. 5:30 in the morning, and I left to head towards the M1 south. The Clifton Boulevard dual-carriageway is 50mph limit that goes into a 40mph limit. Obviously the road was clear, and I was keen to get home and I went too fast.
Anyway, the only other car on the road was behind me and it had blue flashing lights on its roof. Bugger.
So I pull over and a female police officer (she was cute) came over to the car and asked if I knew why I"d been pulled over. "Was I going to fast?" was my reply, and she said that I was doing over 70mph. Whoops.
She asked me to sit in the police car whilst they took my details. The other officer in the car was also a woman (not as cute as the first one), and I don"t know if this had any bearing on the situation but it might have.
Anyway, I"m obviously getting done for the speeding, and then the first officer says "Is it your car?" Well, technically it"s the missus" car so I tell them that. She then asks if we have insurance, as the database is showing that there isn"t any! Now, I KNOW there"s insurance on it as they took three payments out of the account back in the summer, and they weren"t small amounts! She said that occasionally a car won"t show on the database for whatever reason.
Then she said that there"s no MOT showing on the car either! FML. Now I know the MOT is due up soon, but I also "know" it"s due at the end of November - so I know it"s covered. I say to them "This isn"t going well, is it?" The cute one laughs and says that it isn"t going particularly well for me so far.
I"ve gone for the humble approach, I was in the wrong for the speeding, and they"re just doing their jobs - so no point giving them a hard time or trying to get out of it. I was wrong, and I was caught. The insurance and the MOT bits were scaring me though. I"m thinking car impounded, court appearance, fine, points, possible ban...
So, just as I"m waiting for the next bit of bad news - the cute one says "OK, I"ll just give you a warning for the speeding." I nod and say that I"ve learnt my lesson (and I have, I never speed on that stretch of road any more)". She then goes on to say that she has to give me a producer to show my insurance and MOT documents at a police station within 7 days. I say that I"ll do it on the Monday straight away (it"s 5:30 on Sunday morning when this is happening).
And that was that. How lucky was I? MBSFN.
I get back in my car, drive off v-e-r-y- s-l-o-w-l-y, but wanting to get home ASAP to check the documents. I get home and find confirmation that I"ve paid for the insurance, but I can"t find an insurance certificate. When I call them the next day, there"s no problem and they email one out to me immediately and also stick one in the post. So that was fine.
The MOT however had expired on the Thursday! What an idiot! I take it to a garage and get it MOTd as soon as I could, and thankfully it passed without needing anything doing. I then go to the local police station and explain what happened. The police officer I spoke to said that the insurance was all fine, and that she didn"t expect anything to happen with the MOT being out of date as it was obviously an over-sight rather than anything intentional (and she was right).
Anyway, I haven"t heard anything since, so I"m guessing I"m a lucky boy. Apparently, I"ve been told that they won"t bother with the MOT on its own if it"s only out by a few days. If it was alongside another offence (such as speeding) then it would be acted upon, but on its own they wouldn"t bother. How lucky am I that they didn"t give me a ticket for the speeding. Such lovely police officers (one lovelier than the other ldo). I was surprised that they didn"t breath-test me, which wouldn"t have been a problem as I don"t drink and drive.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that you should drive carefully to and from DTD.