Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/03/315.asp
4/9/2005
UK: Camera Operators Caught Guessing License Numbers
Speed camera operators found issuing a ticket based on a half-visible license plate -- using guesswork to fill the missing numbers.
Steve Adams, 43, was sent a speed camera ticket claiming he drove his company van at 50 MPH in a 40 MPH zone in Filton, UK in December. Company records, however, prove that he was in the city of Tewkesbury at the time -- forty miles away. When Adams requested a copy of the speed camera photograph from the police, he discovered it only showed the last three characters of the offending vehicle's license plate, GXR. The first half of the plate was entirely unreadable. Adams believed that since his van's plate is white and ends in GXR that officials guessed that his vehicle was responsible.
"Driving is my career and to get points on my licence could put me out of a job," Adams told the Bristol Evening Post. Still, the system has forced him to prove his own innocence. The Avon and Somerset Safety Camera Partnership has declined to comment on the case.
Article Excerpt:"It is annoying to be wrongly accused but it also made me wonder how many other people are wrongly given speeding tickets but pay the £60 fine without checking it was actually them."
Source: YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG VAN DRIVER (Bristol Evening Post (UK), 4/8/2005)
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