Phil Skinner says it felt like ‘another kick in the teeth’ when the Driver and Vehicle Standards Department insisted he had to pay the lost licence fee on top of the renewal charge.
He explained the circumstances but was told that there were no exceptions.
Both he and girlfriend Catrina Nagy are still traumatised by the events on Boxing Day when the tidal wave struck while they were sleeping.
They were swept away by the waves but survived by clinging to wreckage.
Mr Skinner says he was particularly surprised because the DVS’s attitude was in complete contrast to that of the Passport Office, which had renewed both his and Miss Nagy’s passports quickly and without charge.
However, when he was contacted by the JEP this morning department chief officer Rohan Minkley immediately agreed to waive the fee, although he refused to apologise for the way his officers had treated Mr Skinner.
‘What he was told was right under the law, so that was correct, but the way it was handled was incorrect.
In instances like this one has to look at compassionate grounds and ignore the law and I am prepared to stick my neck out and do that.’ Mr Minkley said that his department would waive the fees of other tsunami survivors if they could prove the circumstances – the same approach being taken by the Passport Office.
