For the police to effectively charge a crime victim £105 to investigate the case is unacceptable and obscene ("We're the victims of this crime and yet we're being treated like the criminals", The Press, May 26).

And failing to notify Ms Newdick of the charge before she incurred it will, I hope, provide the basis of a successful complaint to the Police Complaints Authority.

No doubt this is part of the Government's agenda, to discourage the victims of crime from reporting "unimportant" offences such as low-level violence and car crime, so that the police can concentrate on the really important offences, such as fox hunters, householders who put their bins out too early or people who try to have a fag with their pint after July 1.

And the police spokesman's assertion that the money can be recovered by an insurance claim is a frightening illustration of just how out of touch the police are with the law-abiding citizens, whose taxes pay their wages.

Does he really not know that the loss of a year's no-claims bonus for a 17 year-old driver would cost far more than £105 (always assuming that her insurance is more than third-party only, which for most newly qualified teenage drivers it is not)?

Perhaps the Small Claims Court might be a more appropriate way to recover the money.

An increasing proportion of Middle England is regarding the police with just as much contempt as the criminals they're supposed to be protecting us from, and this incident is the perfect example of why.

Leo Enticknap, Bootham, York.

* We are appalled at the actions of the police in this case.

We sincerely hope those responsible receive some standard procedure when their time comes, and it usually does.

Brian Cater, Fulford Road, York.