An east Auckland man has been stressed, frustrated and financially burdened for months after being incorrectly disqualified from driving earlier this year.
George* hasn't had a valid licence since January due to the blunder, which appears to have been made because he shares a surname with someone convicted of driving under the influence.
But he didn't find out about the mistake until he was pulled over for a minor speeding offence seven months later.
A Ministry of Justice worker says the issue was caused by either the police or New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) - but the NZTA says it appears the ministry itself got it wrong, and says it's now powerless to do anything until police update their records.
While the agencies point fingers at one another, the error still hasn't been fixed.
George has since been provided with a letter explaining the error, but says his licence remains sanctioned, forcing him to turn down work and making applications for insurance, utilities and even a COVID-19 vaccine pass unnecessarily difficult.
'If I drove I could go to jail'
George was stopped by police on September 11 - the first time he'd found out he had been driving without a valid licence since January 28.
"I think I was going about 10km/h over - 60km/h in a 50km/h zone or something like that," George told Newshub.
"A cop pulled me over and said my licence wasn't valid. I obviously was a bit confused because I had no idea, and he let me off with a warning and said I just had to get it sorted when we got to [COVID-19 alert] level 2 because I couldn't do anything at that moment.
"But I couldn't drive - if I got caught, I'd be facing a fine or possibly going to jail over it."
An inability to drive is a serious problem for George, who travels extensively in his job as an automation specialist and has been forced to turn down a number of employment opportunities.
"I'm an essential worker, so I travel out of town, and I had to delay my projects… I lost a lot of potential work as well," he said.
"I couldn't even drop my little girl to her grandparents to look after her; my wife, who is also working full-time, had to drop everything and drive her around and drive me around."
George, convinced he hadn't done anything to cause his driver licence to be suspended, contacted the NZTA and was told there was a court case number assigned to my driver's licence.
George, shocked and believing he might be facing court for driving offences he couldn't even remember, then called the Ministry of Justice. To his relief, he was told he wasn't the one in trouble - someone who shared his last name was the one facing criminal charges.
"They couldn't tell me any more information because my name didn't match the court [documents]," George said. "That conviction was against someone else - my name wasn't on there, but his case number was assigned to my driver's licence. That created some complications."
After calls with the NZTA and police, George learned he had been mixed up with someone alleged to have committed a DUI. George immediately spoke to his insurance company about the issue and was told he had no coverage if he got into an accident unless he could prove it was a mistake.
"If I'd had an accident [after January 28], in the eyes of the law I didn't have a licence and shouldn't have been driving," he said. "I would've had no insurance and been liable for everything. It was pretty stressful knowing that."
George got back in touch with the Ministry of Justice, who sent him a letter on September 17 confirming the licence disqualification was "an error by NZTA or by the NZ Police" in entering his driver's licence details against another person's charge.
"This is being investigated by the NZ Police who have admitted that there was an error and in no way was [George] suspended from driving on 28/01/2021," it read.
George says after some hesitation, his insurance company eventually decided to accept the letter.
A ministry staffer told him a few days later that the Police Commissioner was overseeing his case and promised the conviction would be wiped from his licence within a week, George said. But a week passed, then a month, and there was still no change.
By this time, George was starting to run into more issues.
"We moved house, but I couldn't apply for electricity and stuff like that. I was trying to register for [online investment platform] Sharesies - I couldn't even do that because you need a licence," he said.
He contacted the ministry again on October 21, and was forwarded an email that revealed how the error occurred: the disqualification was meant to be for someone who had the same last name as him, but was erroneously applied to his driver's licence instead.
The email also explained that "something weird has happened somewhere" with his licence, and that the police vetting team was looking into it urgently.
But again there was no update from the ministry until nearly four weeks later, when he received an email on November 17 saying his driver's licence number had been transferred to a new profile supplied by police.
For the third time, George was promised this would be the end of the problem. But incredibly, his licence still has a conviction against it now - nearly three months after he first raised the issue.
"It's still that constant thing in the back of my mind," he said. "I've got the letter, but is that gonna be enough? I'm going through borders and it hasn't been a problem yet, but if I'm gonna use my licence overseas in Australia, is it gonna come up as not valid?
"It's affected me quite a bit."
Agencies at odd over who's to blame
Only making George's difficulties worse is he still doesn't know who's at fault for the error.
In its letter to him, a Ministry of Justice staffer originally laid blame with either the NZTA or the police, but there still seems to be some uncertainty over who made the mistake and who can now fix it.
The ministry would not be drawn further on the issue, telling Newshub it was unable to comment on or intervene in specific cases.
The police also did not respond to Newshub's request for comment - even though they are the agency who have been tasked with fixing the issue, according to NZTA's senior manager for vehicle and driver licensing, Sue Hardiman.
Hardiman told Newshub it appears the mistake was made by the ministry, who incorrectly added a sanction to George's licence record that was meant for someone else.
She says the NZTA understands the frustration the issue is causing for George - with whom they have "discussed the situation at length" - but she is adamant staff have "done everything we can to try and find a solution".
"We can confirm that this licence was disqualified by the Court for six months, based on an NZ Police charge of Breath Alcohol Level over 400mgms/Litre of Breath. This disqualification had a start date of 28 January 2021 and end date 27 July 2021."
Hardiman says the NZTA advised George that he needed to contact the Courts, as this sanction was added to his licence record by the Ministry of Justice, and they were unable to amend it.
"Realising the distress this was causing [George], on September 13, 2021 [we] advised him that we would attempt to contact the Courts on his behalf, but that our access to the sanctions portion on the driver licence register is 'read-only' and we cannot override what has been loaded by the Ministry of Justice," she said.
"The advice we received from the Ministry of Justice was to contact Police and explain that the records should not be linked, which we did on October 22, asking Police to amend this."
Nearly two months later, it still hasn't been amended.
George followed up with the Ministry of Justice this week, who he said blamed the police for not updating their system and upon further investigation had found the information had been sent to the wrong department.
He says he was told it has now been sent to the correct department this time, but after another hour on the phone to the NZTA was told nothing had changed.
Hardimam says the NZTA has followed up the issue with police, as they are not able to amend the status of his licence on the Driver Licence Register until the police database is corrected.
*This name has been changed.
