John pays American speeding fine ... 52 years late

Police in Philadelphia, USA, plan to frame the note and the 5 postal order retired chauffeur John Gedge sent from Bexhill in payment for the speeding ticket an officer handed him on the Philadelphia ring road back in 1954.

They see his response on finding the fading ticket in an old jacket as the actions of an English gentleman.

But John (pictured on the front page), who has been interviewed by American and British reporters since the story broke in the USA, is still having a chuckle over the whole thing.

The quiet routine at Eridge House Residential Home in Richmond Road has undergone some change this week with a television crew and reporters calling to see John.

The lively 84-year-old has taken phone calls from reporters in Philadelphia and New York as his story has been taken up by the media on both sides of the Atlantic.

Today, John's "transport" is a Zimmer frame. In his working life he covered tens of thousands of miles driving hire cars in the UK and spent four years in America as a chauffeur to the wealthy, driving huge American cars like Chryslers and Lincolns.

It was while driving his elderly businessman employer the 1,300 miles from his New York home to the beach house he had rented in Cuba that John picked up one of only two speeding fines incurred in his driving career.

He can still remember the officer's name.

"It was Captain Harry Reikart.

"I was on the ring-road round Philadelphia. It was one-way and it was quiet.

"Suddenly, this police car pulled me over.

"He said 'You were doing 55mph.'

"I said 'That's not a lot in a 35mph zone...'"

John can remember laughing when Captain Reikart warned him that he had five days in which to pay the $15 fine.

"Little did I realise then that I wouldn't pay it for 52 years!"

The police sent a reminder to his New York home when Aldershot-born John didn't pay. But he heard no more.

"I'd moved a couple of blocks by then."

When John re-discovered the speeding ticket he decided to settle the old debt, calculating the $15 conversion to Sterling based on the 1954 exchange rate.

Cheekily, he added a note saying: "I 'm sorry I am bit late paying this but I've just found the ticket in an old jacket and I thought I'd better send it to you before I get booked."

He added: "God bless America - and maybe George Bush. My regards to the Mayor."

Eridge House owner Heidi Haddow said: "John has been here three years. He's very popular. He's quite a character..."