IT seems to me that if you are a decent, law-abiding citizen, it goes against you. Within the last month we have had two lots of damage done to our car - first, by a moronic yob who had nothing better to do than rip my wing mirror off and kick my passenger door in. We have been awarded £40 compensation, and he got a twelve-month conditional discharge.

Second, I parked up outside my daughter-in-law's house, when a pedal cyclist put her brakes on and went right over the handlebars, landing on my bonnet. I ran out and my main concern was that she was all right and whether I could get her an ambulance.

She said that her husband would put right the damage to the car. They offered to do a patch-up job if I parked my car up outside his mother's house, which was totally unacceptable.

My husband and I got two quotes for a professional job and asked them to contribute but were informed that they had rung the police and were told that, if we refused the offer of a patch-up job, then they would relinqush all responsibility.

It doesn't seem fair to me that we go to work, pay our dues and don't have the law on our side and there isn't a thing we can do about it.

This girl is unemployed so taking them to the small courts would be fruitless. Personally, I could not live with myself if I had done damage to someone else's property.

ELAIN THOMPSON, Bolton Road, Cravens Brow, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.