AN ANGRY motorist has attacked a Harlow magistrates decision to convict him for not producing his driving licence.

After his release on condition of one year good behaviour, Mark McClements, 24, from Abbottsweld, Harlow, told chairwoman Felicity Ritchie: I do not understand what I have done wrong. I tried to produce it but I couldnt.

Mr McClements pleaded guilty to not producing his driving licence, but told Harlow magistrates last Wednesday how the document had been ruined in his washing machine.

He said: It was unreadable so I sent it away to the DVLA in Swansea and it took over a month for them to sort it out. Have you ever tried dealing with the DVLA?

Mr McClements said the police stopped him in Cambridge Road, Harlow, in January, told him not to worry if he could not produce the document in seven days.

But Mrs Ritchie said she was not prepared to argue with Mr McClements and told him he should have told the DVLA he needed to produce his licence.

She released him on a one year conditional discharge which she said was the way of the court in dealing with such offences.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.