WHY WAS SPEED CASE DROPPED?
11:00 - 10 January 2006
Police have dropped a speeding prosecution against a driver and apologised to him after he demanded to see photographic evidence of the offence.
Martin Shirley was told he was being prosecuted after being caught travelling at 66mph in a 40mph limit. But Mr Shirley was sure he was not going that fast in his Land Rover - and asked to see photographs which proved his guilt.
The Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership could not produce the pictures, taken automatically when an offence is committed, and it wrote to him saying it was dropping the case, blaming "human error".
But it refused to say how the mistake happened, and has ruled out reviewing other prosecutions.
Mr Shirley said: "It is clearly unacceptable that drivers can be prosecuted in error for speeding, based on erroneous evidence which they are not shown and which would in many cases remain undetected."
A notice of prosecution sent by police, who take cases to court on behalf of the partnership, claimed Mr Shirley was travelling at 66mph in a 40mph roadworks limit on the A30 on Bodmin Moor in December. But when he challenged the finding, the partnership wrote back admitting it did not have the photographic evidence of the offence.
Motorists paid £3 million in speed camera fines in Devon and Cornwall last year. A total of 53,204 drivers were handed fixed penalty notices.
But a series of incidents have cast doubt on the accuracy of speed cameras. Portland deputy mayor Kris Haskins got a ticket for driving at 51mph, but after checking the pictures, he was able to prove he was doing just 13mph. Officials said a "projected reflection" triggered the speed camera.
Motorist Paul Cox was "clocked" doing 90mph in Plymouth by a police speed gun, but he had his cruise control set at 70mph at the time, and a court threw out the case, saying there were discrepancies in the speed gun evidence.
Just last month, motorcyclist Bryn Carlyon was recorded doing an apparent 46mph in a 30mph zone, but used photographs to prove his speed was just 18mph. The safety camera partnership in Cardiff said a bus travelling in the opposite direction could have triggered the false reading.
Businessman Mr Shirley, a regular user of the A30 in Cornwall and Devon, was on his way from Bath to Newquay.
He was astonished to see the camera flash just after 8am on December 12 because he felt that he had been making a conscious effort to observe the limit in his Land Rover.
A letter from an official in the police's Safety Camera Unit at Plymouth and dated January 3, stated: "I have reviewed the evidence and this further check has indicated that an error has occurred with the speed that has been recorded. This error is very much regretted and I offer my sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused."
Mr Shirley said: "Many drivers might have simply accepted that the intended prosecution was correct.
"Although completely innocent, they would have paid the fine, had three points put on their licence, and suffered increased insurance premiums. Ultimately the three points might have contributed to a driver losing their licence when added to other points gained before or after this 'offence', with all the consequences which that would lead to."
Mr Shirley said: "When my vehicle triggered the camera, I knew that it was almost certainly an error as I had been trying to stay within the speed limit. Hence my request to see the photographic evidence after I received the Notice of Intended Prosecution.
A spokesman for the Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership said: "The partnership has a comprehensive process of checking in which there are opportunities for human error to occur. A recent case was resolved as a result of secondary checks being made, so there was never any possibility of prosecution.
"I must stress that human error is extremely rare. The partnership only wants to prosecute those that are speeding."
The spokesman said Mr Shirley's case would not lead to a review of all prosecutions arising from speed cameras.
