http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/10327666.stm

read the link

so he was caught doing 37 in a 30 zone so how is the offence invalid?

******* rich/famous always get away with this sort of stuff

 

Have I read it right...? He was speeding, but because the officer randomly points the gun at people jogging and other slow moving people/vehicles, he got off "SCOTT FREE"???

 

If i recall,

And some of the 5-0 boys will confirm.

"An officer must have reasonable grounds to believe the vehicle is speeding, and can only then target said vehicle"

Its not an arbitary point and shoot system.

Because the civillian was found to have been using the equipment

indiscriminatly (sp) by targeting non speeders, it nullified any

prosecutions


Mart


btw, not sure how fixed or mobile scamera's work on this though


Mart

 

he was still over the speed limit though regardless of whether gun operator was checking every vehicle in sight......what a joke

 

To me it looks like the Police have been targeting every vehicle in the hope of taking in some extra income rather then the obvious ones.

Pretty sad state of affairs really when somebody is actually going out of their way to do you for something.

 

Have to agree with the above. No mention (suprisingly) if the road has recently had its speed limit reduced hence a nice litte revenue earner, or if the actual speed was in fact dangerous.
I think the more cases that come out like this the better, and when the govemenmt finally tell the police to start patrolling the roads in cars again and stop this silly and very obvious revenue generated policing the better !

Richard

 

Bit funny how they know what he was doing...

"Did you point the laser at joggers?"

"No"

Job done! either someone is stupidly honest or there is some other recording method in there.

5t.

 

yes but the law is a two way process - the police have to follow the correct procedure - as laid down in law

Otherwise it is unlawful -- in the same way that the police can't just enter your house and start searching it, any evidence gathered that way, would not be admissible in a court of law

it really is that simple

Or do we want people making it up as they go along

 

Correct they need time to form an opinion that the vehicle is speeding.
They then use the approved device to corroborate that opinion with hard numbers.

Now, I dont know how it works with civvies though??

 

it was a civilian pointing the thing and the judge questioned how this indiscrimate 'testing' raised speeding awareness.

Seems reasonable to me.

 

The legalities have been covered already, but how would you feel if you were let off for doing the same speed under the same circumstances? Would you insist that you really were guilty after all and insist on taking the points as well as paying the fine?

Les

 

No I know, what I mean is the law in terms of speeding seems to be written for police officers operating the equipment. Dont know how this works for civvies though.... I always thought they were exempt so could target every car - i.e a speed camera.

The pro forma statement that BiB use for speeding is very clearly worded up in terms of "observing" the target car and "forming an opinion".

I dont know if civvies have to do a statement for each one????

 

A guy in Humberside got off a couple of years ago, same reason: the operator had targetted cyclists and an aeroplane, as he said he was "bored".

get out and do a proper job then, you thief

 

I was watching one of these TV programs about traffic cops and one clip showed a traffic cop sitting in his marked car at the side of the motorway on a raised place laser gunning every car in the outside lane and car after car was not speeding, after what the commentator said was 10 minutes he zapped one that was speeding and then he was off blue lights etc. just showed the police dont follow this rule, as seen on national TV.

I have also seen a traffic officer sitting in the drivers seat (on his own) of his marked car on a bridge over the M6 at Penrith laser gunning cars out through the open passenger window again in clear breach of ACPO guidelines though i doubt he would admit that if he was challenged in court about the validity of the speed reading he obtains?

 

I remember that one, it was on Thorpe Road. There used to be a van on there every Sunday without fail until the local magistrates got fed up with the amount of people coming up in court and have since had a fall out with the scammers. The justification for using Thorpe Rd has or did also come in to question when the deaths or serious accidents used turned out to be miles away in Holme-on-Spalding-Moor, one of which was a lorry being driven by a foreign driver without insurance or a licence. So I heard anyway

 

I still reckon that radar speedcams are too unreliable and their possibilty of being grossly inaccurate makes them unsuitable to prosecute motorists.

Les