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http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-w ... -20929550/

Ex-Cop took on North Wales Police over speeding fine

May 19 2008 by Steve Bagnall, Daily Post

A FORMER police advanced motorcycle instructor who fought for 13 months to prove his innocence over a speeding charge has had his case thrown out.

North Wales Police are now investigating a complaint by furious Bob McMillan after he claimed the case should never have gone to court.

Mr McMillan, who was also a former general manager of Honda UK Motorcycle, is sure he and two friends were not over the speed limit when they were stopped on the A4212 in April last year.

The 60-year-old has reported North Wales Police to the Independents Police Complaints Commission.

It took Mr McMillan, also a former police advanced car driver with Staffordshire Constabulary, over a year of battling before the CPS threw the case out.

But he insists he and his two friends were innocent of the speeding charge when they were stopped near Fron Goch between Bala and Trawsfynydd.

Mr McMillan and one of his friends decided to battle the case, but the other decided to take the penalty points fearing a long legal battle. The IPCC have referred the case back to NWP.

Mr McMillan, who has also operated speed trap equipment himself, claimed he was worried about the police evidence used against him and he also obtained video footage taken by the police helicopter used to charge him.

It was claimed the three had been speeding as a convoy at about 83mph.

Mr McMillan, who also won a Prince Michael Award for a motorbike safety course, claimed the video had been edited, was focused on another unknown sole rider travelling in the opposite direction, and at no point showed the three riders speeding.

Mr McMillan believes the unknown motorcyclist travelling in the opposite direction was speeding and was clocked by a speed trap (Vascar) officer and video operator while in the helicopter.

He believes the decision to give the three motorbikes that speed – 83mph – was made to boost numbers caught speeding.

Mr McMillan, who moved from Harlech to near Oswestry, said: “I want to make it clear that this is not an anti-police rant, having spent 10 years as a patrol officer and being proud of that time.

“I have denied this speeding allegation from the time that I was stopped.”

He and his wife have dedicated themselves to proving the allegation false.

Mr McMillan added: “We have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours and hundreds of pounds to prove this.

“It was not the £60 fine or three points on the licence but the principle.”

“I was defending myself because I had nothing to hide and there is no possibility that any of the points gained would make me lose my licence.

A NWP spokeswoman confirmed they were investigating a formal complaint

She said: “North Wales Police in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service have decided to discontinue speeding offence cases which were due to be heard at Dolgellau Magistrates Court on June 10.

“The cases involved the use of speed detection equipment carried on board the force helicopter.

“The decision to discontinue proceedings is based purely on administrative matters that were identified that were not completed satisfactorily.

“North Wales Police emphasise that this decision has nothing to do with the tactics used involving use of the helicopter, and the helicopter will in future still be a tactical option in operational policing matters.”

An IPCC spokesman said: “As in cases like these we have forwarded the case to North Wales Police – that was on March 10.

“It is up to them to record the complaint and investigate themselves.

“If Mr McMillan is unhappy with the outcome he can appeal to ourselves.”

I see that they did not find this out BEFORE issuing proceedings thus bullying one person into confessing to an offence they didn't commit.

The report says "they were stopped on the A4212 in April last year" but they were clocked by helicopter. What did it do? Land on the road?

Still, no need to spare any expense when dealing with major crimes.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Eagle VCP!

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Regulation without education merely creates more criminals.

I thought they never did that sort of thing? Its funny isn't it, whenever somebody gets near to proving possible corruption, the cases always get dropped.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

The answer is here...

VASCAR from the helicopter - time elapsed to pass two points a known distance apart - based on a video!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Its a pretty scary waste of resources, isn't it!

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Regulation without education merely creates more criminals.

The helicopter would be better deployed tracking thieving und violent yobs

Very worrying indeed that the footage was allegedly "manipulated" to attempt to show what was not the reality too.

But as said - it get chucked out before it can be proven to be so...

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Surely THIS is the most worrying part of all.....


If it gets swept under the carpet, it's up to him to spend MORE time and MONEY to progress the complaint!
If he had not pleaded not guilty like his other hapless colleague, this would never have come to light!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Oh, NW Plod are always pleading poverty, on a yearly basis. I found this article from January 2007:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6264491.stm


But of course, no expense is spared for the scamera division. I bet the North Wales Police Authority are pretty angry about this article. Brainstorm's already been told that he's skating on thin ice -- effectively it means one more gaffe and he's out.

if he's on thin ice then he can't weigh very much because as far as I can tell he's been on it for some time!

Hmm let's weigh the running cost of a police helicopter against the cost of a speeding fine ? Hardly rocket science. North Wales Police should be ashamed of themselves for even contemplating using such an expensive piece of technology for what is in essence down to traffic patrols to do

Welcome Black Rat to our humble abode!

The good news is that we have better smileys!!

If you ask the right person, you can get a nice badge... unless you just want to slum it with the rest of us!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Indeed. Helicopter should be deployed in the management of pursuits for obvious safety reasons

For tracking identified criminals (and I do not count "alleged retired bank managers who allegedly overtake alleged tractors" as "of sufficient criminal status" in an area where there are a plethora of s/cams Enough money spent on outlay of these. Or are they saying the s/cams do not work but a police officer, however deployed, does ?



I like the popcorn smiley. But we think there should be a "doughnut dunkin' one!


As for the budget..

We all took a cut in 2007 and ended up freezing recruitment or not replacing retirees. We had ring-fenced cash for "plastics and HATOS" though.. It was a bit of a worry for all CCs and particularly, the late CC Todd of GMP - I think he felt the impact quite hard for his patch.


Off topic aside here..

A perfectionist in many respects. I hope his successor continues his plans for that force. I have a brother and sister with GMP currently. I was with GMP for a little while too at one point in my career. GMP faces more challenges than most in all reality as the UK's more or less "second city" to London.


Our own recruitment of "specials" continued as more or less normal though.

Our patch? We are proud of our RPU which nails the truly awful out there. We have accidents all the same here.. but we have consistently below average. We have a serious problem with some hard core bikers We have some sink estates with joy riders comng to grief.. We have some rural "scaries" and the odd split second of the usually careful having that awful tragic experience too. Not speed as primary cause .. in such cases - but truly a COAST fail. We can assess and the "usually careful" who make a bad mistake .. we do offer the DIS as an alternative to a more serious charge at our discretion (which is professionally and objectively made - ALWAYS!)


We have a decent overall record regards solving other crimes and general community police issues. Nothing is perfect and there's always room for improvement and development in any profession, Police forces are no different and they will always use any feedback from whatever source as base to work on


My force may make the odd error. But we do not sweep under carpet as we think those living and paying their dues uner our patch are entitled to expect the best we can deliver. If we cannot attend their burglary after the event. immeidatly - we will tell them. We will give a crime number to set the insurance ball rolling and we will truy as best we can to give an ETA of when we can come to take a look see of the evidence just in case we have prints/DNA on file

I am not a fan of DNA for all. I think this will be unwieldy because too much information overloads current compute systems. I also would not like folk to be fearful of a police officer either. We are merely members of the public who applied to be "prefects" to try to help everyone else to obey the basic rules here.

I do not .. nor never have.. enforced the letter of the law because I can.. or for the sake of it. I have usually used polite professional judgement and used a punishment when the reasoned approach failed completely.

Decent policing is a fine thin - tight roped - line of judgement , professional judgement .. discretion.. reason .. negotiation..humane understanding.. elemet of education and social work..


Another off topic aside from me


You all get a good deal for your money. My pay rise per Ms Smith does not really impact. as such. It does to the junior rank and files on the real "north face of a mountain!" I have to say I understand and support the overall anger there.

People are generally law abiding. They will make daft mistakes from time to time. A decent policeman will see and judge professionally whether or not in viable or logical public interest to press charges

Our patch hope to do the right and just all the time. The Public are entitled to this and entitled to fair play all the time too.

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