Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/21/2111.asp

12/8/2007

UK: Ninety MPH Police Chief Clears 26 Subordinates of Speeding
Twenty-six speeding police in South Yorkshire, UK escape penalties after officials claim they do not track who drives police vehicles.

Police in South Yorkshire, UK are being let out of speed camera citations because officials claim they did not keep track of their police vehicles. Just three days ago, South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, 49, admitted he was guilty of driving 90 MPH in a 60 zone in North Wales. Although Hughes accepted a 42 day license suspension and £350 (US $700) fine, twenty-six of his subordinates have been let off of similar violations. The official vehicles involved were not responding to any emergency at the time.

In the UK, it is a crime for a motorist to remain silent when a speed camera accuses him of speeding. The penalty for failing to identify an individual who will pay the ticket and accept the license points is the same as that for speeding. Police escaped both penalties by exercising a loophole that allows a court to cancel the penalty if the vehicle owner has absolutely no way of knowing, after an exhaustive investigation, who might have been behind the wheel.

"This is not necessarily a matter of our members refusing to come forward," local police union spokesman Bob Pitt told The Sun. "There will be a lot who have used a police vehicle fleetingly who didn't realize they had gone through a speed camera and genuinely are unable to say they were the driver at the time."

Source: Cop speeders Dodge justice (The Sun (UK), 12/8/2007)

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