My 18-year-old son was driving his friends home from football practice last Tuesday night when he was stopped by police.

He wound down his window but was told "get out of the car" (no "please, sir").

They examined the car in detail and warned that one of his tyres was getting near the limit but could find nothing else wrong.

He showed them his driving licence but they wrote out a slip, telling him to take all his documents into the police station.

My son took all this in without answering back but, when he got back in the car, the officer said to him: "I look forward to taking your licence off you in the future."

I have always brought up my children to respect the police, who are always talking about community policing and initiatives to help teenagers. I am disgusted that this kind of harassment of young drivers is allowed.

As parents, we have had to pay £1,600 to insure his £200 old banger and if, by continued harassment, the police managed to find some reason to remove his licence, it is us who would have to pay for more lessons, more test fees and more insurance premiums.

I speak from experience as my older son was caught by police twice doing 35mph in a 30mph area and lost his licence.

They followed him in the dark when he was doing us a favour by picking up his younger brother from football training.

Now he is 22 and driving again they seem to leave him alone, probably because he now has a girlfriend in the car instead of other boys.

The police are not doing themselves any favours by alienating young drivers.

If they have passed their tests and the Pass Plus certificate, they should be allowed to drive without police harassment unless they have been driving dangerously.

-Mrs Wendy McClymount, Southwick