http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?fAr ... fSetId=381
Top cop throws top lawyer and 'speeders'
May 25, 2007
Britain's Association of Chief Police Officers has recruited a team of top lawyers to prosecute drivers who contest their speeding fines in court.
According to The Times of London, many drivers challenge and "get off" alleged driving offences, often on technicalitie, but a new crack legal team - dubbed 'Road Safety Support' - aims to ensure that police prosecution cases are more robust.
ACPO's top traffic cop, Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, said: "We are going to demonstrate that spurious cases get a slap. We are saying to drivers who think they can try it on, 'Come get us if you think you are hard enough'
"We have won every case we have supported."
Hughes went on to criticise anti-speed camera campaigns such as Safe Speed, claiming that they "encourage people to believe that there is something inherently wrong with enforcing the law".
Paul Smith,founder of Safe Speed, commented: "This action by ACPO is a dirty trick - they are attempting to put access to justice beyond the pocket of ordinary drivers.
"They are effectively saying - 'you are guilty because we never make mistakes'. But the newspapers are full of Police mistakes."
Smith went on to say that Hughes was "damaging the police/public relationship" and pointed out that Hughes himself has recently received six penalty points on his driving licence.
"The whole thing," Smith said, "has become a petty war of technicalities... road safety has been forgotten."- Reuters
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Note that this is Reuters news, which goes everywhere, although I haven't seen it anywhere else yet.
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