Graduate Jailed for 3 Months After trying To Avoid Speeding Fine

Ayesha Ahmed  (Picture: PA)

A university graduate with a degree in international relations and politics has been jailed for three months after she tried to avoid paying a speeding fine.

 

27-year-old Ayesha Ahmed was caught speeding twice by a mobile police van in a 30mph zone near her home. Both times in her BMW on July 2014 5 minutes apart. One instance at 39mph and the other at 40mph.
But instead of undertaking a speed awareness course or paying the fines, Ahmed enlisted the help of a 'legal expert' who said a 'legal loophole' could help her dodge them completely at a cost of £450 – a fee likely greater than the sum of the speeding fines.

Unfortunately the legal expert sent details to police that claimed it was a woman from Walsall who had been driving and not Ahmed. Suspicions were raised when police discovered eight other speeding offences had been attributed to drivers at the same address.

The international relations and politics graduate was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice at Wolverhampton Crown Court and sentenced to three months in jail and a 58-week driving ban.

Police constable Steve Jevons said: "Ahmed has paid a heavy price for thinking she could lie her way out of speeding offences. She never met this "legal expert" and paid via a third-party. Ahmed was given every opportunity to admit her guilt – an admission that would have spared her a jail term."

He added: "It’s a sorry tale. She has no previous convictions but a potentially promising career is now in ruins and all because she wanted to retain a clean licence."

Jevons warned anyone caught speeding to avoid taking similar action. "Don’t be conned by anyone saying they know a person who, for a fee, can ‘make speeding fines go away.
"These people try passing blame on to ‘phantom’ drivers, knowing the authorities won’t be able to trace them and assuming the matter will be dropped." Probably best to pay up, folks. Or avoid speeding in the first place.

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Driver speeding in the UK ordered to pay £11,000

David Pickup was caught speeding and has to pay £11,000 for challenging his ticket after a prosecution expert hired an airfield and a sports car to prove him wrong.

David Pickup, 45, was clocked doing 101mph in his Audi R8 on the A55 at Lloc in Flintshire in April 2014.


Flintshire Magistrates' Court heard a police speed camera caught him and he asked officers: "Can we call it 98?".


Mr Pickup who is from Wilmslow in Cheshire, who has a holiday home in Abersoch, Gwynedd, was convicted of speeding.


He denied breaking the 70mph speed limit and said that a number of people from Cheshire had second homes in Abersoch, which he called a millionaire's paradise.


The defence questioned the accuracy of the in-car police speed camera so the prosecution hired an expert who rented an airfield and an Audi R8 to carry out tests, the results of which were presented to the court.


Pickup was fined £675, given six points on his licence and ordered to pay the full prosecution costs - which included the testing - of £10,384.

Coventry roadworks cameras on A45 catch out nearly 3,500 drivers last year!

Tollbar Island with the junction of London Road Image: coventrytelegraph.net

Tollbar island is best known for long delays - despite these delays average speed cameras positioned in roadworks caught out nearly 3,500 drivers last year.
 

The cameras operate on a 40mph stretch of A45 between Tollbar and the Festival Island and are designed to protect contractors working on the £106million project.  

The Highways Agency say work on the new underpass takes place around the clock. The roadworks have been described as the worst in the country, with motorists experiencing long delays during the typical working week.  

At the time a Highways Agency spokesman said: “We are committed to making sure disruption for the drivers who use the junction every day is kept to an absolute minimum and we plan roadworks very carefully.

 “Wherever possible lanes are closed at quieter times and we do our best to keep lanes open while we work, avoiding the need to divert traffic.” The minimum penalty for speeding is a £100 fine and three penalty points.  

The figures come as fixed speed cameras in the region look set to make a comeback after 304 were controversially switched off a year ago. Some motorists have posted on internet forums suggesting that the fixed speed camera on the Ryton side of the A45, close to Tollbar, is working again though.

 

200 Year old law to be used to avoid speeding fine in court

A top Queensland barrister will use case law dating back 200 years to try to avoid a $146 speeding fine.

Tony Morris QC is mounting a landmark legal challenge against Queensland's speed-camera laws, The Courier-Mail reports.

Mr Morris says he wasn't driving when his Volvo was photographed doing 57km/h in a 50km/h zone last year.

But he won't say who was behind the wheel.

He has invoked a spousal privilege case from 1817, arguing it's unconstitutional for a Queensland court to fine him when there's evidence he was not the driver.

He says he was in a meeting with top judges when the Volvo was snapped, and they are willing to testify that he was with them.

He argues the spousal privilege principle, established in England 200 years ago, means a husband can't be compelled to provide information that incriminates his wife

 "I decline to identify the person who was in charge of the vehicle at the relevant time," Mr Morris reportedly wrote in a letter to the Department of Transport

 

Earlier this year, Mr Morris wrote to federal, state and territory attorneys-general saying he planned to challenge parts of Queensland's speed-camera laws.

Under the laws, the registered owner of a car has two options: name the driver or say they don't know who was driving. Car owners can't, under the law, say they know who the driver was but refuse to give a name.

Mr Morris has told The Courier-Mail he can't see why he should dob someone in for driving the car when the legislation is invalid.

He said the Volvo caught by the speed camera was not his usual car, but would not tell the paper who usually drove it.

The case will go to the Court of Appeal within weeks.

Image: Today / Nine News

Taxi driver narrowly avoids jail after speeding lie

62-year-old Mohammed Malik claimed a mechanic was driving his Toyota Avensis when it was clocked traveling at 37mph in a 30 zone in Washwood Heath Road, Birmingham, in April last year.

Officers then wrote to the mechanic, only to have the letter returned saying he no longer lived at the address given. They also visited the address and found it was a residential property that had never been a garage.

This aroused more suspicion, so police then spoke to the cabbie's firm to get a print out of his journeys on the day in question - they clearly showed Malik had actually picked up a fare at the time, with the person clearly visible on speeding camera footage sitting in the back seat. Still, Malik insisted it was his mechanic at the wheel.

With the evidence stacking against him, Malik finally admitted the speeding offence and was subsequently charged with perverting the course of justice for lying about who was behind the wheel.
The driver, of Coleshill Road, Ward End, pleaded guilty to the charge and on 31 March he was handed a four month prison sentence - suspended for 18 months - plus 80 hours unpaid work and costs of £400. He was also banned from driving for six months.

PC Steve Jevons said "Malik may have avoided jail but the suspended sentence is hanging over him for the next year-and-a-half and it’s likely he will now be stripped of his taxi licence. With no livelihood, clearly this will have a huge impact on his life and he will have to ask himself if all his lies were worth the risk. We hope this case serves as a warning to others that lying to the police and the authorities is a serious offence and can ultimately land you behind bars."

Could Bad driving in Europe soon be punished in UK courts?

British motorists caught speeding in their own vehicles in Europe could soon have fines sent to their home addresses and be pursued in UK courts, under new plans to let European Union states access our motoring records for the first time.

At the moment British motorists who commit driving offences in other EU countries can be fined only if stopped by a police officer at the roadside. Those whose offences in their own vehicles are caught on camera tend to get away without any sort of punishment, however drivers of hire cars are often traced through their rental companies.

This week that could all change as the European Parliament will vote on a range of measures that will give national police forces the power to send out fines across Europe – and pursue offenders through the courts of their home countries.

Under the new rules, If a driver commits an offence in another country, that state may use their car’s registration number to access their personal data to send out a letter in the driver’s own language, demanding payment and threatening court action if they do not pay the fine.

The new Bill will be the first time that all 28 EU countries take part in cross-border information exchanges. Under the law, British police will also be able to pursue foreign motorists for traffic and speeding fines if they have left the UK.

An earlier law, which Britain had opted out of, was struck down by the European Court of Justice on an administrative technicality. However, the new directive, which was proposed by the European Commission in May, does not allow for Britain to use its opt-out.

 

Read the Full story by the Independent here