Transport Control Department.

And yesterday in Magistrates' Court, the man who took the licence, Albert Joseph Easton, found himself fined $700.

Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis said he wondered whether a lot of similar traffic offences were being committed because of the present social conditions.

Easton, 23, of Beacon Hill, Sandys, was charged with permitting the fraudulent use of road traffic documents, driving without third party insurance and stealing a vehicle licence sticker.

Prosecuting Sgt. Kenrick James said Easton's friend Charlene Millett's car licence had expired, so he went to Sally Port Dump and removed a sticker from a car there.

Sgt. James said: "The sticker was valid until March 1993. The car was taken to TCD to be relicensed but officials became suspicious. They checked it and found that the licence for the car had expired in February 1992.'' Easton apologised to the court and said that he could almost guarantee that it was the last time Mr. Francis would see him.

Mr. Francis said: "There is an awful lot of this going on. I do not know whether it is a sign of certain conditions.

"One of the most serious aspects of this is that a lot of people are driving a lot of vehicles around that are not insured. If they collide with somebody or their property it is going to leave a person in grave difficulties.''