Landmark speeding case goes to court

Is the use of civilians with scameras illegal?

By PH Staff / Wednesday, 25 October 2006 / Loading comments

If the cops don't nab you speeding, then -- increasingly -- a local 'speedwatch' civilian will. But maybe that's about to change -- and it could cost the Government a lot of money in returned fines.

A businessman is challenging a speeding penalty charge on the basis that the civilian wielding the speed camera on which the charge is based was unqualified to take an initial view on whether or not he was speeding. He argues that a police officer is both trained and is empowered in law to do that, while civilians are not.

The case is based on a loophole in the Police Reform Act 2002 which allowed police chiefs to employ civilians. But it didn't give them the legal right to catch speeding drivers, according to Web site pepipoo.co.uk, which is backing the accused.

Pipipoo's originator Mike Morgan will speak for the accused at Devizes Magistrates' Court. He said that there was no doubt in his mind that the law was being broken by using civilians.

He told the Mail on Sunday: "Police constables are considered to be officers of the Crown and, as such, are deemed to be able to form what is known as a prior opinion of excess speed. The camera or other device provides the secondary opinion - but one is not valid without the other. We have sought top legal advice and they agree that there is no Act of Parliament that gives the civilian camera operators the empowerment to give primary evidence -- only a police officer can do that."

The deployment of civilians with speed guns is patchy, with the Met and Thames Valley eschewing their use but 11 of them, including Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, and Dorset, do so.

The police and Home Office didn't comment on the forthcoming case.

^{Picture by www.speedcam.co.uk}