Never lie to cops: Driving slow with no insurance

I was a young Navy Officer in Toulon and I was broke. I owned two cars and I was going to sell one. Only one of these two cars was insured.

As I was moving from a house to an apartment some ten kilometers away, I asked one of my friends to drive the insured car and I took the uninsured one.

I made sure that I was going well under the speed limit all the way, so that the police would not arrest me for speeding. Big mistake. In the south of France, going slightly over the speed limit is the usual way of driving. So, the police found my way of driving slowly highly suspect, and they stopped me.

My friend seeing that I was stopped by the police did not wait for me. I told the policemen the truth and explained that indeed I had no insurance for this car. They checked that the car was not stolen. They were almost friendly.

After they made sure that I owned the car and they got enough information about my whereabouts, they told me to continue to my destination, driving my uninsured car.

Later, the police went to check that I was indeed a graduate student at the Navy Instruction Center, and I was asked to present myself at the gate so that they could make sure that I told the truth.

As I remember, the case did not even go to court and I got no fine for my bad behavior.

This second case comforted me in my belief that you should never lie to the cops, whatever the consequences you imagine.