Grieving widow with cancer prosecuted for not insuring dead husband’s car
An elderly widow who is battling cancer has been convicted by a fast-track court after she forgot to insure her late husband’s car. The grief-stricken pensioner, aged 81, said the mix-up happened when she fell ill and went to stay with her daughter in the run-up to Christmas, shortly after her husband has died. His Volkswagen Polo was transferred into her name after he passed away, and the DVLA spotted it had not been insured by its new registered keeper on 3 December last year. The widow, from Liverpool, penned a letter, explaining her “confusion, illness, bereavement and absence from home”, and revealing that she has now been diagnosed with cancer. But the letter of mitigation was not enough to stop the criminal prosecution, which was dealt with in the controversial fast-track Single Justice Procedure. In her letter, the pensioner wrote: “I am 81 years old and was recently widowed following the death of my husband late last year. “During this difficult period, the vehicle was transferred into my name and I was unfamiliar with …
