"Now that evidence of less than acceptable standards is beginning to emerge, is it not time for the Government to consider privatising vehicle testing centres, as occurs in the rest of the UK?"

Why would a private service be any more honest? Checks on Private MOT centres on the mainland have never received glowing reports either (arguably worse). It is certainly very easy to get a mainland MOT certificate on the black market.

OK, admittedly the privatisation point shouldn't have been my conclusion. That doesn't take away from the substantive point - that there's questions that keep getting raised about the standards and practices of certain NI testing centres.

I have a story that will probably be different from the rest of the horror stories that will be present on slugger. A few years back I had booked an MOT date for my ricketty Renault megane. I forgot all about it until the day of the test so got no repairs done. I decided to send it though anyway as it would give me a good list to give to my mechanic. Imagine my surprise when she sailed through with flying colours. Driving home up the road, I was pulled in by the police and givin a fine for balding tyres. As if that wasn't unbelieveable enough, as I was pulling into my driveway on my way from the altercation with the officier, the Exhaust and silencer fell of in my back yard. True to the last word. Beat that!!

That sounds too much like a Monty Python sketch to be true... did you beat the car with a tree branch too by any chance?!

;o)

Is this moderated