KEY POINTS:
After 50 years of driving, a Rotorua woman has finally got her driver's licence.
Amelia Kahira Morrison, 79, of Ohinemutu, got away with it until police caught her last month.
They took her car away for 28 days, and told Mrs Morrison she had to sit her licence if she wanted to keep driving.
This week she got her car back after getting her learner's licence through a free course at Rotorua's Taharangi Marae, the Rotorua Daily Post reports.
The marae has dealt with about 480 people every year for the past three years - most of them people aged over 30 who have been driving unlicensed for years.
Driver trainer Lillian Emery said many clients were older people who had never had a licence or were sick of getting fines for driving illegally.
Some had learning difficulties which had stopped them from sitting their licence.
Many had been fined thousands of dollars.
Mrs Morrison was taught how to drive by her husband Peter in a truck more than five decades ago. She said she had previously never felt ready enough to sit her licence.
"I was really nervous and I was scared I'd fail. I was only driving to tangi, church and giving people a lift to doctors or the supermarket. I've never had an accident," she said.
Inspector Greg Sparrow said innocent road users were being killed by unlicensed, inexperienced drivers.
"They may know how to stop but they may not know who to give way to at an uncontrolled intersection."
- NZPA
