YES I admit it, I am a criminal, and West Yorkshire Highway Patrol told me so!

My offence? Driving with no licence, tax, insurance or MOT? No! Driving over the speed limit or with defective lights (like many others who passed me)? No!

Driving using a mobile phone or without seat belts? No!

My offence was to cross a solid white line!

Yes I admit I made an error. After checking my mirrors on a very wet, dark night where two lanes merge into another three lanes, checking nothing was coming, I crossed into the middle lane over a solid white line.

I was pulled over and lectured to like a naughty schoolboy for 20 minutes (I am actually 45) and then given the option of a court summons, which was explained could mean a £1,000 fine and possibly losing my licence OR a £60 fixed penalty and three points on my licence. Given how chewed up I was, which would you choose?

Okay, hands up every driver who has not committed a minor motoring offence, that includes you West Yorkshires finest, probably most of you.

I feel the police were over zealous in their actions. Would not a common sense approach have been better suited to the occasion, time and conditions?

I will pay my £60 fine and take my three points on my unblemished licence, but this is one former pro-police member of the public whose goodwill and public spirited actions have just ran out.

R D Watson,

Elmfield Terrace,

Malton Road,

York.

Updated: 10:09 Wednesday, March 01, 2006