Yesterday Monty escaoped prosecutioon for speding on M9 - he was reported to have employed a well known "Cheshire Lawyer" who "specialises in Motoring Offences".
Today
The head of a police force's driving school is to face trial after being accused of speeding at 118mph on the M9 motorway near Falkirk. Insp Paul Gee, of Durham Constabulary, said he was carrying out a "risk assessment" for his force's advanced driving school, which trains officers.
He was in uniform and driving a marked car when clocked by a mobile camera.
At Falkirk Sheriff Court, Sheriff Charlie McNair set trial for 14 January next year.
At a technical hearing, defence solicitor Martin Morrow said Insp Gee, 48, of Heddon On The Wall, Northumberland, pleaded not guilty to the speeding offence.
Can anyone recommend a good lawyer for Insp Gee?
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Either the police are supposed to be able to outrun, chase and catch suspects on the roads or they aren't.
If they are, cases of this sort should never see the light of day. It makes a fool of the whole system. The left hand should know what the right hand is doing. Otherwise the system is pink fluffy dice.
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Thing is, he wouldn't know about Gatsos and the like because there are none in Co Durham.
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Thing is he wouldn't know about Gatsos and the like because there are none in Co Durham.
I know, it's paradise! I can actually watch the road instead of my speedo ;-) They do put a lot of those lamppost-mounted speed indicators up though, and they have a camera van which they occasionally use with so many warning signs only an idiot would get caught!
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Otherwise the system is pink fluffy dice.
I would rather say, 'uncoordinated to a radical, indeed pathological, extent'.
I used a word I thought meant that, but one that is apparently frowned on these days. In fact it is not used clinically any more, but I saw it used in some technical, non-medical connection only days ago.
One has to get used to the modern world though, so no blame.
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Much as I enjoy hearing about the authorities being hoist with their own petard, surely police instructors need to practice occasionally? I'd rather they knew how to chase criminals!
The cops go through our village at a lot more than 30 all the time...
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Judging by the amount of plod who crash their plodmobiles they need all the training they can get.
Oh hold on, that means they're human and prone to error.
Ahh, but then how come that logic doesn't apply to us then? Speeding is classed as a zero-tolerance/absolute offence - you're guilty because we say you are.
I notice Durham (where I live) gets a lot of press about having no Gatsos - its simply better value for money to use a scamera van overal. Fixed gatsos don't make a lot of revenue anymore but a mobile van tucked away outside a busy road (outside the local Tesco for example) will make money all day!
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... a mobile van tucked away outside a busy road (outside the local Tesco for example) will make money all day!
Haven't noticed their scamera van outside my local Tesco! Here in the Sedgefield area I often see a lot of Plodmobiles, but haven't seen Durham Plod's van for a couple of years, maybe more!
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What a complete waste of time and money trying to prosecue him. He hasn't done anything wrong whatsoever. The Secretary of State issues an exemption* for police driver training purposes.... over and above any exemptions provided for using a vehicle for 'police purposes'. If he's convicted i'll eat my hat.
* used to be the case 20 years ago, unless it's changed.
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Why is a Durham cop test driving a car near Falkirk?
Think there is maybe a bit more to this story or it wouldn't have went to court.
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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It is possible to cover large areas in a day while training in a marked vehicle so a quick blast up the A68/A69/M6 would have you in Falkirk before Tiffin.
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He might get away with it - but unless he has been sworn in as a Scottish cop, he was purely a civilian whether driving a marked car or not. This "I was speeding to carry out a risk assessment" lark has been used before - one example was near Loch Lomond where the cops actually crashed into another car and killed the occupant.
Can't imagine how risky the almost deserted M9 can be compared with the A1(M) that runs through Durham. Unless it's been the only chance he's ever had to drive over the speed limit........ (which you can hardly do on the A1(M)!!!)
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thousands of English cops have been sworn in as Scottish cops, it became needed so that they could move large numbers of officers north for things like protecting George Bush on his visits, dont think this authority expires after the event, and there are some forces brititsh transport police etc which are cross border anyways
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Greg - watch out near Tesco in Durham (in the Dragonville estate). Thats their regular haunt at the minute. They tend to sit on the bridge over the motorway just at the point where the 30 limit becomes a 60 limit towards Sherburn
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The cops go through our village at a lot more than 30 all the time...
If there's a 30 limit, then I'm sure they have, each time, the appropriate justification in breaking it.
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Seems like a storm in a tea cup to me. Either they are allowed to practise or they aren't, and either his driving was dangerous or it wasn't. Given that he was clocked by a speed camera, we presumably have no idea about the second issue. So it all hangs on whether or not they are allowed to speed in a non emergency e.g. testing.
It does seem rather stupid, head and backside not knowing what t'other is doing, etc.
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The head of a police force's driving school is to face trial after being accused of speeding at 118mph on the M9 motorway near Falkirk. Insp Paul Gee of Durham Constabulary said he was carrying out a "risk assessment" for his force's advanced driving school which trains officers.
Presumably the intentions of these trips are are logged beforehand in a secure manner - such as "Going out on a high-speed training run". If not, they should be.
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CPS and ACPO are only to happy to throw an Officer to the lions. Shows 'accountability' apparently!
It's got to the stage that an awful lot of officers are slowing down to go through speed cameras, even when attending an emergency. It saves a good hours worth of paperwork, followed by a nervous wait while some office type decides if you 'justified'.
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police driver training schools normally have 'set' routes that the instructors and pupils use. They are often many hundreds of miles away from where the driving school is or where their home force is....(some forces pool their resources and share driving schools)
a senior instructor or senior manager of the unit would have a number of reasons for travelling at speed in another forces area...e.g.
-risk assessing a new route,
-risk assessing an existing route that had some changes to it e.g. road layout, road surface, etc
-risk assessing new car.....(this is often a most important thing to do, not necessarily just an excuse to thrash the new car on the fleet, there can be many things to worry about e.g. brake fade, which you wouldn't want to happen when a student is driving it)
there are numerous possibilities ... and that will ensure that this officer will not be found guilty, the whole prosecutiuon will be a total waste of time and money.......why bother wasting taxpayers hard earnt cash
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I have heard all the arguments about police having to train for real life situations and that is why I wasn't too bothered about the one who got caught in Wales on an empty motorway.
However I believe this part of the M9 has a history of fatalities and that was the justification for the mobile speed trap. So to do that speed "training" at this place does concern me.
Did he have his blues and twos on? If he had would a mobile operator have captured him?
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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I don't think that whether he had his blues and twos on or not makes any difference. I've absolutely no objection to advanced police drivers undertaking whatever training is necessary to rid our roads of some of the idiots who occupy them.
My only wish is that rather than reduce the number of traffic cops on the roads, as has happened over the past five years or so, the number was dramatically increased.
Far more effective and worthwhile than just installing countless speed cameras purely for revenue gathering purposes.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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