Handheld speed measuring guns, as used by the police up and down the country, could be inaccurate, according to a Home Office official. The admission was wrung from Geoffrey Biddulph, Head of the Road Crime Section in the UK Home Office, who admitted in a newspaper letter that the laser-based technology is not infallible.
Tests undertaken at the manufacturer's direction have shown that, under certain circumstances, one of the guns, the popular LTI 20-20 Ultralyte model, has shown brick walls travelling at 44mph, an empty road 33mph, a parked car at 22mph, and a slow-moving bicycle at 66mph.
The issue arose following a case of a motorist who was at first accused of driving at 106mph on the M6 toll rod. Eventually, Stoke Magistrates Court acquitted the man, Stewart Walker, on the grounds that the speed gun could have been measuring the car that was overtaking him, a situation that a police officer under oath admitted was possible.
As a result of the case, Safe Speed founder Paul Smith called for the recall of the devices and said that the Home Office should "make arrangements to compensate those convicted or fined on the basis of unreliable evidence."