The following cases were dealt with at Cardiff Magistrates Court: Matthew Reed, 29, of Channel View Road, Grangetown, Cardiff, was jailed for four months and 42 days to run consecutively, after he was convicted of assaulting a woman and using threatening behaviour, and being in breach of a suspended sentence given for assaulting the same woman and using threatening behaviour. Andrew Gareth Meaney, 40, of Trowbridge Green, Rumney, Cardiff, was given a 12-month community order, banned from driving for three years and told to pay pounds 80 court costs, after he was convicted of failing to provide a specimen of breath for analysis, driving without insurance and failing to surrender to bail. Stacy John Poole, 30, of Clos y Ffynnon, Pontprennau, Cardiff, was fined pounds 100 with pounds 40 court costs and pounds 15 victims surcharge and banned from driving for 12 months after pleading guilty to drink-driving. He had 44mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

TREATING customers fairly is the central tenet of financial regulation. But major groups are using crafty clauses and sneaky charges to dodge the rules. Here, TONY HAZELL and JAMES CONEY highlight 12 abuses and demand action from the firms and their regulators ...

A driver was fined pounds 50 and had his licence left intact. With fines like that I will be surprised if anybody will bother with car insurance.

Don't travel without emergency insurance and breakdown phone numbers plus your mobile. Check tyres, lights, fuel, oil antifreeze and wipers before leaving. Take de-icer, torch and ice scraper with you.

The shares slumped 31/4p to another new low of 671/2p today in the wake of last week's profit warning. More than 30 million changed hands. Retail analyst Tony Shiret at Credit Suisse is no fan of DSG, which includes PC World, and Currys.digital, and warns DSG shareholders that they ain't seen nothing yet.

More Than, the direct financial services arm of Royal & SunAlliance, has launched two new initiatives designed to reward customer loyalty - free home contents cover and two months free car insurance cover - for life. All new buildings insurance customers will get free contents cover for the life of their policy, or until they make a contents claim. Even if they do make a claim, they will still be able to 'win back' free contents cover if they do not claim in the following year.

About one in every four North Carolinians is covered through the massive N.C. Reinsurance Facility for risky drivers. That risk pool is larger than any similar mechanism anywhere else in America. The facility regularly loses money, and state law allows the participating auto-insurance companies to recover the facility's losses from all insurance clients, not just those who are risky drivers.

Groupama seek 'cream of the crop' Groupama Insurances is to follow up its search for high-calibre candidates for its 2008 graduate recruitment programme launched at the CM Careers Fair in Manchester in October with national press advertising, graduate job boards and careers fairs throughout the next three months.

GEICO, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and the San Diego Zoo today kicked-off a nationwide conservation campaign featuring a live gecko exhibit, the GEICO Gecko and a series of animated television commercials. The campaign features a traveling exhibit and begins at the Children's Zoo from Jan. 5 -- Feb. 17. Among the featured geckos are the giant day geckos, one of the largest of all geckos, which are native to Madagascar and the Indian Ocean islands. The GEICO Gecko costume character will appear at the zoo every weekend.

An employee involved in an auto accident while riding in a company vehicle was lawfully excluded from collecting benefits under the company's uninsured motorist coverage, the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals ruled last week. Because the worker had auto insurance on his own personal vehicle, he was excluded from the company's uninsured motorist coverage under a provision written into the employer's policy. Though the worker charged that the exception violates the legislative intent of the law requiring employers to ensure company vehicles, the court found that parties to insurance contracts are free to write those contracts as they see fit.