In Court

There's little point in getting a solicitor to act for you, particularly if you're confident to speak for yourself. The reason being that, as we've said, under the law police officers can do and say almost anything and their evidence will be "preferred" by the Magistrates, so we recommend that you save your money for your appeal. All speeding offences are handled by Magistrates' Courts, and if you'd like to know more about these Courts please follow this link.

In our case we also found no evidence that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is "independent". They wrote a letter referring to speed measurement equipment that wasn't even switched on, even after being provided with a skeleton argument setting out the defendant's entire case!

The police officer was allowed to make major changes to his written evidence, and the fact that the equipment wasn't being used was barely questioned. He said that there was a "typing error" - the second reading should have read half a mile, not a mile. That highlights the difference between police procedure and the law; a "follow check has to be over a mile". That may have changed by now in Gwent!

We can't publish the record, provided by Gwent Constabulary from their Complaints Register, because it was provided "In Confidence". However, it refers to an activity associated with this rather more colourful public servant! The document relates to the complaint that was recorded by Gwent Constabulary after the trial.

The problem that you will have is that Magistrates are lay people, and if they've had training it won'tt have been in police procedures. They certainly won't understand how speed detection equipment works. The Magistrates in our case didn't even understand that a patrol car has to produce an average speed of the target vehicle when performing a "follow check".

If you intend to present our calculations then don't forget to warn the CPS first, or they'll try to stop you introducing them.

You probably need to have watched "Police-Victim-Action!" to fully understand all of the above.

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