When your van goes missing you don’t expect the culprit to be…a work colleague. Forget those criminal gangs. Everybody is a suspect.
The potential thief who is going to take your pride and joy could very well be a neighbour, family member, or even someone you are sharing a B&B room with.
That is exactly what happened in Manchester, where two men were doing some work in the area. To save money, only 1 B&B room was booked, although while one of the owner of the van was sleeping the other man…
…Took the keys for the van and decided to go off on an adventure. What kind of adventure? The kind where you have no driving license and no insurance for the van, but, most importantly you have no PERMISSION.
Let’s face it, if a friend just took your keys and drove off into the night with your van without any kind of permission then wouldn’t you be a bit miffed? Of course you would.
To make matters even worse, the man who went off in the van had apparently drunk 6 pints down the local boozer.
So just to sum up…he had no license, no insurance, no permission, and was drunk. Something tells me this story is not going to end well.
And it didn’t. Our boys and girls in Blue did their job for once and pulled over the friendly joyrider.
“It’s my mates van,” he could have said.
“Do you have permission from your mate?” the Police officer might have asked.
“No,” would have been the honest reply.
As we all know, any time the Police pull you over and find that you have no licence or insurance then you can expect to find yourself in trouble. A night down the local nick could be in store and a star appearance at the court is definitely going to happen.
So the man with no permission had his day in court and immediately pleaded guilty from the dock.
This was all the judge needed to hear, and with the trusty hammer firmly in her grasp she slammed it down with such force that everybody in the courtroom jumped a bit.
Jail time was not on the cards in this particular case, but a 12 month community order and 120 hours of unpaid work was.
Not only that, but he was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £85 victim surcharge.
I think the moral of the story is…if you are thinking about going for a drive in a van that is not yours, then make sure you get permission.
Also, make sure you have a licence, and check to see if you are insured to drive the van.
Temporary van insurance can be compared right here of course, at CVI, The Nations Favourite.
Once you have permission then go directly to the top of the page and click on “get a quote.”