Morning:
9°c
Fined for speeding ... in car stolen a year ago
Alex Stephens, Evening Standard17.03.08
A victim of a carjacking has received a series of speeding fines incurred by the vehicle after it was stolen more than a year ago.
Breast cancer survivor Kym Walker was "completely traumatised" when two men attacked her before speeding away in her Honda Civic as she stopped to buy a celebratory bottle of wine in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, after doctors gave her the all-clear in November 2006.
Sixteen months on, the 49-year-old novelist has not seen the car again but has had a series of speeding fines.
Despite telling police repeatedly that she is no longer the registered owner - and lodging an official complaint - notices keep landing on her doormat in Rickmansworth. Now she fears she may end up in court.
Mrs Walker said: "Whatever I do these tickets keep coming. The Met refuses to respond to my letters and there is not even a phone number I can ring.
"This endless harassment by faceless bureaucrats is every bit as upsetting as the carjacking itself. I need to stop this before it gets out of hand."
Mrs Walker was attacked having just dropped her twin daughters off at a piano lesson and after hearing she had successfully finished her treatment. As she stepped out of the car, the men grappled with her and snatched her bag with her car and house keys inside before driving off.
Mrs Walker, who uses the pen-name Kym Lloyd, said: "I was kneed in the back. I still suffer stabbing pains from where they grabbed my shoulder. I was in shock but had to keep it together as I had my 15-year-old twins to look after and my husband was away.
"The worst thing was that my house keys were on the same key ring as the car keys.
"I'm not of a nervous disposition but it took a good six months for me to feel comfortable again."
The Walkers immediately informed their insurance company and the car was recorded by the DVLA as stolen. The carjacking case was investigated by Hertfordshire Police and a man was caught by officers from the Metropolitan Police when he crashed the Honda into a wall in Harrow.
He later appeared at Harrow magistrates' court.
The car was not returned to Mrs Walker as her insurance policy had paid out. She has no idea what happened to the vehicle.
She said: "I drew a line under the whole terrible experience and assumed I'd hear no more about it."
She received the first speeding ticket from the police on 23 January. "It brought memories of the carjacking flooding back," said the novelist, whose books include The Box of Guilt.
Three more tickets arrived soon after - all for different speeding offences - so the Walkers resorted to "guerrilla" tactics by sending 100 copies of each penalty notice to the police.
The couple lodged a complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
A Met spokesman said: "We're sorry for any distress and inconvenience we have caused Mrs Walker.
"We have now put a lost and stolen marker for the car on the police national computer. Any future penalty notices will be stopped."
Reader views (2)
It isn't just the French Bourbons who have "Learned nothing and forgotten nothing". This nonsense of the Metropolitan Police sending threats from an uncontactable bureaucracy has been going on for years. When it happened to me some years ago, I turned up in court only to hear the prosecutor asking permission to drop the case. I asked for costs, but the magistrates could only award me £50, so I had to threaten to sue the police to get the rest of my costs. Local authorities do almost the same. I have caught out Greenwich Council using a bogus PO Box for its parking tickets, and sued Walthamstow for stonewalling behind an official who did not know the law. There is a real legal problem here, in that it is so hard to make incompetent officialdom pay the true costs of its mistakes.
- Anthony Durham, London, UK
Elect Stalinist bureaucracy, get Stalinist bureaucracy.
Who knew?
- Michael Spurlock, United States
