With hopefully the worst of the winter weather behind us, we were told of this Rochester-based temp’s heroic tales of derring-do to make it to work — defying the stereotypical image of a Britain full of skiving workers.

Last week John Wood, who works for driving and industrial recruiter Extrastaff, tried to start his car in the morning to get to work but to no avail. He rushed back into his house, flung on a few more layers of clothes and set off for his long trek into work.

A few steps out of his drive and he realised he’d left not only his mobile phone but also his keys on the kitchen table in the house. Nothing for it than to scale his rear fence and break in through the back door. However, having only just moved in to his new home, the ever-vigilant Neighbourhood Watch had alerted the police, who duly arrived to arrest him for breaking and entering.

Banged up in the police cell, he used his phone call to ring his father, who sped round to John’s house with the spare keys and found the newly-signed mortgage documents and identification.

Once free, the conversation with his boss, explaining he’d spent the day in a police cell, was understandably embarrassing, so the next day he was determined to battle his way through the elements to get to his next contract at DHL in Barking, Essex.

All went well, until he reached DHL. He got out of the car, slipped on some black ice, broke his wrist and was signed off work for three days.

The story has a happy ending, however. The next few days heralded the birth of his baby daughter and, despite being unable to cuddle her, there were no more bad experiences to bring John down.