What a fine old mess!

I SAW on the news that there is a scumbag American financier called Jeffrey Epstein being accused again of having sex with underage women. OK, let’s get this clear – there is no such thing as ‘an underage woman.’ She’s a child!! And he is a paedophile. If he is guilty, bang him up and throw the key away instead of repeating the pittance of a sentence he got in 2008.

I got a letter from my insurance company the other day informing me that I had got a speeding fine. It said: ‘We are contacting you because we have located the publication of a notice related to the vehicle registration number xxxxxxx.’

The information in this notification is as follows: and it then goes on to tell when and where and how much the fine was. I ‘phoned them and asked how they knew about it before I did. They told me that these notices go into this publication if Trafico do not get a response from the second letter they send to the owner of the vehicle.

Well you know where this is going. I never got a second letter. In fact, I never got a first letter. I find this strange because there is someone on our gate 24/7 and Correos know that even if he’s away for a few minutes, they only have to wait a short time.

I don’t believe I was sent anything. The person on the ‘phone informed me that this is not unusual. I was fortunate. I paid it straight away and managed to get the maximum discount on my fine.

Now not every company gives this service, so I was lucky. I was relating this story to my mate and he told me a horror story about how he had a fine that he never knew anything about and he finished up with a horrendous fine.

The first thing he knew about it was when his bank account was embargoed and even though he protested, they were not interested and insisted that the letters had been sent. I have had similar experiences here with letters from the town hall or other official places where it’s something to do with a payment.

I mean, they would never tell porkies about these letters just to get a bit of extra dosh would they? Or would they? Let me know if you have had any experiences of fine letters going missing.