A PENSIONER has become the latest victim of Jersey bureaucracy gone mad.

When Doris Benest, of Mont au Prêtre, St Helier, realised she needed to renew her driving licence, she hit a slight problem – she could not find it.Apologetically, she approached the civil servants at the Town Hall and explained her situation.

They told her that they had a record of her being qualified to drive and would be able to issue a new licence for a fee of £25.But that was just the start of the saga: no sooner had that licence been issued, it would be cancelled, so Mrs Benest, who has been driving since 1957, would have one to hand in to renew.Only then, and having paid another £25, could she be issued with a new driving licence.’It is just wonderful, isn’t it?’ she said.

‘They just said ‘I’m sorry, but this is the rule.

I was a bit furious, to be quite honest – £50 is a lot of money.

I’m an old-age pensioner and I cannot see the sense of spending £25 on a new licence for it to be cancelled immediately.’A spokesman for the Town Hall said the law clearly stated that the licence holder had to pay £50 and that this was to deter people from losing their licences.

‘It is one of those things,’ he said.

‘This happens a lot and everyone makes the same comments.’He explained that the law was designed to discourage people from falsely claiming they had lost their licence and claiming a new one, to use it in a foreign country, for example, after a driving ban in Jersey.The spokesman added: ‘Most people find their licences in a drawer the week after getting a new one.

It is just one of those things that we are governed by the law over.’