Clean licence dirty after 55 years
After 55 years of trouble-free driving Kidderminster pensioner Marjorie Salisbury was not prepared to give up her clean licence without a fight.
When she was charged with fleeing the scene of an accident, the 88-year-old was determined to defend herself in court.
Salisbury scraped a Mini Cooper while parking her Citroen in a space on the Bromsgrove Street car park, the town's magistrates were told.
She was adamant she had no problems with parking and had not realised she had bumped the other car.
Mini owner Jennifer Payne claimed she returned to her car to find the rear wheel arch damaged on the driver's side and Mrs Salisbury's car parked so close that the two vehicles were touching.
Salisbury pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to stop and failing to report an accident to police.
She has already been cleared of failing to report the crash, because magistrates believed she had not been aware of the collision.
But they found her guilty of failing to stop after an accident and ended her unblemished driving record with five penalty points on her licence.
She was also fined £100, with £150 court costs and £15 victim surcharge.
Kiernan Cunningham, prosecuting, said: "While driving that vehicle into the parking space Mrs Salisbury encountered difficulties parking and while doing so scraped Mrs Payne's car."
He added it was impossible that the person driving into the parking space did not know there had been contact between the two cars.
Mini owner Ms Payne told the court: "When I returned to my vehicle, I could see quite clearly there was no way I was going to get into the driver's side, because there was a blue Citroen parking close touching my vehicle and crossing the lines into my space."
Salisbury declined to comment after the case.
