On Friday 13th a man rang and, because he spoke very quickly, I picked up on the words 'car, accident, collision and witness' but the rest was a blur.

With heart racing I finally managed to clarify the situation. Jay had bumped this chap's car while parking and had left a note with his name and phone number via a witness who spoke English. The car owner was keen to fill in the 'accident form' as soon as possible so I promised to ring back as soon as Jay got home.

Jay's explanation was as follows:

He and another chap were waiting for the same parking space to be vacated.

Jay 'won' but in his haste he clipped the car in the nextdoor space.

The other motorist (who was pipped at the post) was a complete bastard, got out of his car and threatened to take action if Jay didn't confess and leave his details on the windscreen.

Jay parked his car in another space and went back to find this chap had taken photographs of his number plate and was busy writing a note.

Once he realised that Jay's French was not fluent he spoke English and said he'd give him five minutes to put his details down.

Jay asked him if he would do it in French for him, so he crossed out what he'd already written and wrote something else.

There was no damage to our car and, from what he could make out, Jay thought the dent on the other car was not in the right position to have been caused by him hitting it - though he had felt a bump.

Anyway, I went back into town with him and we met the owner of the car. He was a very pleasant chap and explained that, because it was his firm's car he would have to fill in the insurance form.

This is, in fact, a very good idea. There are boxes to tick, a space for a diagram and both drivers have to fill in their details and sign it. They take a copy each for their insurance companies.

We went to our company straight away. The lady smiled sympathetically and suggested that we might see if we could come to an agreement to pay for the damage (if it weren't too much) to protect our no-claims discount, so I rang the man and asked if it would be possible.

He got back to us on Monday and said the quote was for 390 euros and his boss would like a decision  - and payment - by Tuesday morning.

Here's where the good luck comes in.

When I opened the post I found that we had overpaid for gas to the tune of just over 400euros and would be reimbursed within two weeks.

Problem sorted.