So someone has taken the arbitrary decision that eating a sandwich while driving is an offence of driving without due care and attention and worthy of three points and a £60 fine, eh! (Oxford Mail, March 1).

This is what the seemingly affable and sensible Ben Hedges needs to do: Get himself a good local solicitor (it'll cost a few pounds, mind you), plead not guilty and get himself acquitted - which he will inevitably be.

Then ask for total costs against the police for their temerity in bringing such a foolhardy case before the courts.

That'll teach 'em, although, in truth, it's not their money he'll get back in costs, it's ours.

This whole ridiculous story begs another question - what on earth are the supervising sergeants and inspectors doing while their junior officers on the ground are making these crass decisions - decisions that make the rest of the hard-working, diligent and sensible officers look like a load of chumps? Dear, oh deary me, will they never learn?

When I was a young policeman in Oxford in the early 1980s, when slogans were all the rage, there was a very sound and sensible superintendent in Oxford who had the Oxfordshire slogan of 'Policing by consent' written boldly across the top of his office noticeboard.

With a big felt pen, he'd scribbled out 'consent' and written 'commonsense'.

The county could do with a few more of his sort.

PETER LAIDLER Anson Close Marcham