Speed camera fault leads to prosecution failing
A professional chauffeur has escaped prosecution for speeding by proving there was a fault with the speed camera which appeared to show he was driving at 10mph above the 30mph limit.
The case, which involved a hand-held speed camera used by police on the A412 at Denham, Buckinghamshire, was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service for lack of evidence the day before a scheduled court hearing.
The 37-year-old driver, who runs a Hertfordshire-based chauffeur car service, viewed the DVD footage of his car at a police station and saw an error message on the screen at the time of his alleged motoring offence.
A spokesman for the campaign group Safe Speed said, "For a long time, we've been stating that this equipment can be faulty. This clearly shows proof of that."
The chauffeur said, "These cameras are being used nationwide and it can allow authorities to prosecute people with false evidence. It will not show an error message and the speed you were doing at the same time."
A still of the video would show the car and the speed but any camera error message would not appear.
He added that he was concerned other drivers could have been past the same speed camera and then convicted of speeding, despite not breaking the limit, with the consequent implications of the imposition of penalty points and the possibility of disqualification under totting up.
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