Chef Has Wrong Recipe for Road ; HANDSWORTH: Driver Banned After Saving Money By Cancelling Insurance

By Paul Beard

A CHEF who cancelled his driving insurance to save money has been banned from the roads.

Paul Groom, 26, of College Road, Handsworth, was caught out when he was ordered to produce his documents by police.

He handed over a Norwich Union car insurance certificate covering him for a year from February 2006.

But Warwick Crown Court heard Groom had already cancelled the policy when he handed in the document. He admitted forgery and having no insurance and was banned from driving for six months, fined 100 and ordered to pay pounds 722 costs.

Niall Skinner, defending, said: "He was driving when he should not have been when he was given the form to produce his documents.

"In the folder where he keeps his documents was the insurance certificate and foolishly he handed it in."

The court heard Groom, who has now changed his name to Mohammed Ashraf, was stopped by police at Coventry Road last November. He was given a form requiring him to produce his driving documents at a police station and handed in the cancelled policy at Thornhill Road police station.

The court heard Norwich Union had previously written asking him to return the certificate and making it clear Groom would be committing an offence by retaining it.

Mr Skinner said Groom worked as a chef and would find it difficult relying on public transport.

But Judge Christopher Hodson told Groom: "You chose to save yourself

some money, and in doing that you committed the offence on this particular day of driving without insurance.

"Anyone you had had an accident with would have had difficulty getting compensation, and any compensation would have had to be paid out of the premiums of honest people.

"When you were stopped you tried to bluff it out by taking the insurance certificate you knew you had cancelled to try to get out of the consequences, but you failed," he added.

(c) 2007 Evening Mail; Birmingham (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.