Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/23/2330.asp

4/18/2008

UK: Cop Caught Lying to Avoid Camera Ticket
UK police officer creates false story to get out of paying a speed camera ticket.

A police officer in the UK faces jail time for lying in order to get out of a speed camera ticket. Richard Holding, 45, is one of the rare armed officers with the Devon and Cornwall force. He appeared before Plymouth Magistrates Wednesday on charges of perverting the course of justice.

On March 28, Holding had been driving 89 MPH in a 70 zone on the A38 highway. He saw a mobile speed camera unit on the side of the road and immediately flipped on the police lights of his Range Rover so that it would appear that he was responding to an emergency. Later, he checked incident reports on the computer and found that someone had called in a possible reckless driver in a Citroen. Holding claimed he had been out looking for this car. The fatal flaw in this story was that, although the incident was in the computer, it was not broadcast on the police radio. Holding could not have known about the Citroen.

"This was a moment of madness from a man who is suffering the classic symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder," Holding's attorney, Simon Laws, told the court, as reported in the Daily Mail.

Laws cited Holding's wartime service in Iraq as a reason to be lenient. Holding pleaded guilty to the speeding and obstruction of justice charges. He will be sentenced May 14.

Source: Policeman invented bogus car chase and turned on flashing lights to avoid a speeding ticket (London Daily Mail (UK), 4/17/2008)

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