A MEDICAL scientist has been banned from driving after she misread insurance documents twice in two months.

Police clocked Dr Edith Millan doing 42mph in a 30mph limit on the A63 in Hambledon, near Selby, in February, Martin Butterworth told York magistrates.

Officers stopped her and their computer check revealed she was not covered by insurance.

For the second time in two months, she told them she believed she had got insurance. But on each occasion, checks of documents from her insurance company revealed she was not covered. Clinical researcher Millan, 47, of Crossways, Badger Hill, York, pleaded guilty to driving without insurance and speeding.

She was banned from driving for 55 days and ordered to pay a £750 fine, a £15 victim surcharge and £45 prosecution costs. Last December, she was given six penalty points for driving without insurance.

Her solicitor, Jackie East, said when Millan was stopped last year, she believed she was insured because she had received a renewal request from her insurers and thought the renewal request would trigger the automatic payment of her premium from her bank account.

But the letter actually asked her to contact the company to confirm she wanted to renew. She did not, her old insurance lapsed shortly before she was stopped and she was therefore driving without insurance.

She insured her car within hours of being stopped for the first time, but when she was stopped on February 23, she was driving her partner’s car.

She believed her cover included third party insurance when driving someone else’s car with their consent, and he had suggested she use his car because it was more economical with fuel.

But when she re-read her insurance documents after her speeding in Hambledon, she realised it only covered her for driving her own car.

She also believed the speed limit through Hambledon was 40mph, not 30mph.