HOW DO SOME PEOPLE get away with it? Recently a
motorist (I quote Lord Merthyr, speaking in a debate in the Lords) 'was convicted of careless driving which had resulted in a collision. It was his sixteenth motoring conviction. The magistrate told him that he had given false evidence in the witness box and was temperamentally unfitted to drive. He was, presumably, not a pauper, because he was recorded as having had a large black Alvis as his car . . . the magistrate imposed a fine of £5 . . . he was not disqualified.' This is very far from being an isolated case. I can understand the courts' reluctance to send a man to prison for careless driving, even in cases where that penalty is stipulated; but why such small fines? And why no disqualification? If a man is 'temperament- ally unfitted to drive,' why allow him to go on driving?
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