The DU Lounge

Happy birthday - your speeding fine's cancelled

11 Apr, 2004 09:49 PM
4 mins to read
By LOUISA CLEAVE

It began with a speeding fine and ended up with a New Zealand man's letter zooming around the world by email.

The South Auckland accountant's clever letter to police disputing a speeding fine has ended up in inboxes everywhere.

[...]

"So to recap, it appears that on my birthday on June 23, 1974, I crawled out of the maternity ward, hijacked a seriously high-powered Honda saloon with an automated number plate changing mechanism, drove to Auckland at close to Mach 1, was pulled over approaching the Bombay Hills and unwittingly changed the automated number plate changing mechanism to show the same number as a car I would come to own almost 30 years later (the chance of selecting the same number plate is a mere 1 in 308,915,776 - so quite conceivable)."

The police infringement bureau sent the following response to Mr Lee on March 30: "After careful consideration of your comments and the circumstances surrounding the issue of the notice, it has been decided on this occasion to waive the offence. Accordingly, you are no longer required to pay the infringement fee."