Letter: Prevention is best cure for car addicts

DRIVING addicts like Paul ('Why Paul can't stop driving', 29 November) can be kept off the roads and satisfy their obsession at the same time.

Around the country there are more than a hundred projects where obsessive drivers can learn basic mechanical knowledge and drive (fairly old) cars around a track with impunity. Thirty per cent of these projects are financed by the Home Office, the rest are funded through voluntary contributions and organised by the National Organisation of Motor Projects.

The success rate - the prevention of stealing cars and driving them on public roads uninsured - is estimated to be about 80 per cent, yet the cost per person on a motor project is pounds 27 a week. The cost of being a guest of HM Government is pounds 235 per week.

There is a possibility that many projects may have to close if government funds are not forthcoming. Does it really make sense to put an offender in an institution where he can learn to pick a car lock 10 times faster than he could before at a cost of 10 times the possible prevention?

Lady Moorea Black JP

London W11