reflections

My good friend got married for the second time a few weeks ago. His first marriage, which was to a bizarre and slightly psychopathic young lady, ended in disaster when she walked out on him and their son.

I was Best Man at his first wedding, so when I discovered that he was planning on doing it again (admittedly with a much nicer young lady) I thought I should volunteer to do something more constructive, and ended up with the job of official photographer.

On my way to the ceremony (with Best Man v2’s Mother as a passenger) I managed to reverse into another car while bay parking. I won’t go into the great depth about how it happened, but let me just say that there was very minimal damage to the other car, and none to mine.

It occured to me later that day, as I told the story to others, that she could have orchestrated the whole incident - in order to get her already bashed-to-bits car replaced perhaps? Her reluctance to give me her insurance details at the time also bugged me that day.

A week later the other driver calls me, and tells me that she’s had the damaged assessed by a mechanic. She asks me if I’d like to pay the 500 pounds (!) for the work, to avoid going through my insurance. Well, I tell her politely that I think she should proceed with a proper claim, and let our insurance companies handle it.

For the last two weeks I’ve been wondering why she hadn’t made a claim immediately. I ended up concluding that perhaps she was driving without insurance?

Then today I get a call from my insurance company. The lady has (finally) made a claim, and has elected to deal directly with my insurers. So (out of curiosity) I ask the man on the phone whether her choice to do it that way could be an indicator that she was driving without insurance - and what does he reply?

“That’s irrelevant sir. It doesn’t matter to us if she’s driving without insurance, or without a tax, or without ever having passed her test. As you’ve damaged her car she is entitled to make a claim against you.”

Um… Excuse me? So let me get this straight… She could be breaking the law on three counts, and driving totally illegally - but she can still claim off my insurance?

“Yes,” says the insurance man, “that’s a matter for the Police - not us.”

So her claim is going through. It’s quite possible (although totally unproved) that she was driving with no insurance at the very least when I had the accident… And yet it’s still going to cost me a 150 pound excess charge. Sucky, huh?

However, the happy couple had a fantastic day - and they’re currently sunning it up somewhere in Cyprus - so I’m going to let the wedding be the memory from that day that I remember..!

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