After his licence was suspended by mistake, this driver went on a goose chase to find out why
James Murphy was informed his licence was suspended for a crime he didn't commit
After James Murphy drove to his Bay Roberts, N.L., home from work one evening in September, he received two letters in the mail that would send him on a paper chase.
Little did he know that his drive home that day was illegal.
The first letter stated his driver's licence had been suspended for four months, due to a ticket it said he had failed to pay.
The second stated he had been convicted in traffic court for driving while suspended.
"My first thought is to go into panic mode because I do need a valid driver's licence for my employment," said Murphy.
"Like everybody else, a four-month period without being able to have a paycheque, it's kind of worrisome."
When he read those letters, the suspension had already been in place for weeks — but there was an unfamiliar vehicle noted on the letters. The only actual connections to Murphy were his address and licence number.
Murphy had some decisions to make. He found out about his alleged conviction on a Friday, which meant he had to sit through the entire weekend before he could speak to anyone at Newfoundland and Labrador's motor registration division.
So, he gathered his thoughts and went to the RCMP in Bay Roberts.
There was no progress.
"Those guys couldn't help me whatsoever," he said.
The police told Murphy that issue is the responsibility of the motor registration office. He knew he couldn't drive for the weekend, according to the paperwork he had received, so he took the next Monday off work.
As well, Murphy said, his employer sometimes pulls its employees' driving records at random for routine checks. Driving without the paperwork in place was not a risk he was willing to take.
On Monday morning, Murphy went to the nearby Motor Registration Division right away.
"They took my paperwork and they went to the backroom, I guess and they made some phone calls. They came back around 15 minutes later and they said, 'OK, it's all straightened up.'"
That raised some questions.
Murphy was told the representatives called the traffic court, ran the noted licence plate number, and determined the letter had been sent to the wrong person.
However, they didn't offer an explanation as to how the conviction ended up in his name, and then in his mailbox.
"I'm guessing they didn't want to point the finger at wherever the fault lies," Murphy said.
CBC requested a response from the Department of Digital Government and Service NL, which is responsible for the motor registration division. In an emailed statement, spokesperson Gina MacArthur said they couldn't comment for privacy reasons.
No licence, no livelihood
Because driving is an integral part of Murphy's job, losing his licence would mean losing his livelihood.
"On average I would say I'm probably doing 1,500 kilometres in a run of a week [for work], and then my own personal vehicle. So you're probably looking at 2,000 kilometres at least," Murphy said.
If he didn't intercept those letters when he did, Murphy says, he likely would have been "sitting in the back of a squad car" by now.
If he did have to end up without a licence for four months, he says he would have fallen behind on his mortgage payments and his bills, and his savings would have quickly dried up. Plus, he would have been out of a job.
Although Murphy is back on the road, he still has several questions that remain unanswered. For one, he doesn't know whether this has affected his vehicle insurance.
He assumes his insurance company would have raised the premiums if they were notified he was driving while suspended, and he's still waiting on confirmation.
"It's a situation [where] I'm glad I didn't have to find out what could have happened," Murphy said.
However, he still wants to know why exactly he was convicted of a traffic crime someone else committed, and why the responsible bodies were so sparse with answers.
"What really is troubling to me is that it had to go through the police, it had to go through a traffic court, and ultimately through motor vehicle. So somewhere along the way there has to be a fail-safe," said Murphy.
He says the motor registration division should have been able to process his licence number and determine that he never had a ticket, nor a suspended licence.
"Somewhere along the way, the ball has been dropped."
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