From:
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewa ... 1&id=77632
MOTORISTS USING SPEED JAMMERS
Email Mary Ingham
Published on 01/03/2004
By Mary Ingham and Pam McClounie
MOTORISTS in Cumbria are cheating police by installing electronic jamming devices in their cars in a bid to thwart speed traps.
The devices can be easily bought on the internet, but Cumbria police are warning motorists that using a speed camera jammer could land them in court.
Carlisle motorist Nigel Robert James Potter, 21, of Crosshill Drive, became one of the first in the county to be on the wrong side of the law when he was caught by police on London Road in Carlisle last year.
At Eden Magistrates? Court Potter admitted obstructing a constable by fitting a jamming device to his car which prevented police recording his speed.
Suspicions about Mr Potter first came to light in June last year when PC Ivison used a safety camera to check the speed of a Vauxhall Carleton on Linstock Bridge over the M6 motorway.
Prosecutor Mike Fisher said that for seven seconds the officer?s laser equipment gave an error message but no speed reading.
PC Ivison made inquiries and was told that the message would only appear if a laser jamming device was being used.
In September another police officer, PC Cox, was operating a safety camera on London Road when the same error message came on as he tried to get a speed reading for a Vauxhall Carleton, said Mr Fisher.
The car was traced to Potter and was seized and examined. A USA-made jamming device was found, termed a ?diffuser? and costing £349.
In mitigation, Gail Heard said Potter, who had no previous convictions, had bought the device without instructions for £10 from a friend and had thought it was a radar detector, which would have been legal.
A speed check on a wagon travelling close behind Potter indicated he had not been speeding.
Potter had to pay £138 for the recovery wagon used by the police to take away his car and had been without the car for a month.
Eden magistrates gave Potter a six-month conditional discharge and ordered the forfeit and destruction of the jammer.
A police spokesman said: ?We advise motorists not use jamming devices because the police will eventually catch them and prosecute them.?
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And if he had not pled guilty? Then what?
And what's this about confiscating his car?