THE memory of getting pulled up and booked by police for the first time is as vivid as if it was yesterday.

It wasn’t of course, it was forty years ago, and the offence was driving with insufficient tread depth on two tyres.

I was lucky to only get summonsed for one offence.

The traffic cop who stopped me not far from Northallerton had been sitting in a layby but became alert as I trundled past in a Ford 5cwt van that I had bought for £27.50 (yes!) a month before.

Don’t get me wrong I was taxed, insured and had a current MoT certificate. It’s just that when he told me to pull up the handbrake and leant on the bonnet trying to push the vehicle backwards to test its efficiency he couldn’t see the telltale glow of rear brake lights.

The handbrake may have been useless but the footbrakes worked perfectly!

Anyway the point is that I was impoverished and wrote what I thought was an articulate letter to the North Yorkshire magistrates.

I said I was extremely sorry, that it wouldn’t happen again and pleaded extreme poverty.

It didn’t work. In fact it was clearly counter-productive as when I checked later I discovered not only had my request for time to pay been rejected outright but I had also been fined about double the norm for that day.

Clearly I lacked skill as an advocate – or the JPs just hated students.

All of which adds to the astonishment at news that 167 East Lancs drivers are still motoring with more than 12 points on their licence and one has actually clocked up 30 without getting banned.

The law says ‘exceptional hardship’ can be the only reason for not imposing an automatic driving ban when your licence has a dirty dozen points.

The answer of course is that there are people able to afford to buy the services of the legal profession’s finest silver-tongued specialists – people who are able to get those who administer ‘justice’ eating out of their hands.

I strongly suspect that the scores of drivers who have managed to succeed in pleading ‘exceptional circumstances’ have appeared before unpaid, lay magistrates.

Hardened district and crown court judges are legal professionals and far less likely to be reaching for hankies on hearing a defence lawyer’s sob story.

But it’s sad that some of our courts can be so much more lenient when the defendant can afford to buy help from barristers.