An unbelievable item crossed my desk from Wales in the UK. A vicar found herself in hot water with her car insurer, after placing stickers with religious messages on her car.
Rev Wena Parry paid £120 to have her Vauxhall Zafira people carrier decorated with “Christ must be Saviour” and “Christ for me” slogans.
“Every opportunity I have I want to tell people about Jesus. I reckon there must be at least a million people who have read the texts on my car,” she told BBC Wales.
Vauhall by Jesus!
However, after she made a claim following thieves stealing parts of the engine, her insurance company, Age UK, demanded to know why the stickers – deemed to be modifications – had not been declared.
Drivers are obliged to inform their insurer when altering their car from standard, though this normally applies to mechanical and electrical alterations such as alarm systems, wide wheels and performance enhancements.
Increasingly, however, car owners are finding their policies invalidated for trivial reasons – most commonly for leaving their cars unlocked and unattended, for example when defrosting windscreens.
The religious wars in the Middle East looked like paling into insignificance when Rev Parry accused Age UK of religious discrimination. “There might be somebody within that company that hates Christianity,” she said.
The insurance company compounded the issue by saying, “The situation regarding Rev Parry’s claim was in no way related to the Christian nature of her graphics. Our insurer concluded that our request to declare all modifications was not made clear enough to Rev Parry and therefore she did not know which vehicle enhancements should have been declared.”
What utter poppycock! The company has now upheld Rev Parry’s claim, settling at £735. It also waived the policy excess and outstanding balance as a gesture of goodwill.
Age UK’s spokeswoman added, “While all car owners have the right to self-expression and place whatever they wish on their cars, we would urge all drivers to make their insurance providers aware of any graphics applied to their cars.”
I wonder what they would do about the bumper sticker very prevalent in beef growing areas of Australia which read, “You’re in cattle country. Eat beef ya bastards!”
However, a friend of mine in the insurance business said that if you advertise your business on your daily driver, it comes under a different schedule from purely domestic transport! Sounds like the Rev. Parry has got off lightly!
