ESSEX POLICE COMMUNITY SPEEDWATCH

[Biggiebest]

On Saturday, I opened a letter from Essex police informing me that my vehicle was monitored last month exceeding the speed limit by 6MPH.
'Apparently the driver disregarded the speed limit on the said road. On this occasion, no further action will be taken but your vehicle details will be retained for action should it be observed exceeding the limit on any said road'.

Now, here is the interesting bit:

I live approx 350 miles away from Essex and to be perfectly honest, have never even set foot in Essex let alone driven a vehicle there.
At the said time of offence, I personally was in hospital having a major operation. My vehicle was locked in my garage some hours away from said offence.
Even if the other named driver of my vehicle had unbeknown to me, used the vehicle, there is no way they could have dropped me to the hospital at 7.30am and committed the offence at 8.45am some five or more counties away.

I duly fired off a very disapproving email and suggested my registration had been cloned as it was impossible that it was my actual vehicle.

The reply from Essex Police was - oops! Someone in the Road Policing Support Unit, misread a registration digit and unfortunately sent out the Notice to you in error.

Now if I was a shy and retiring sort of individual or a worrier (well lets not be too transparent) < this could have caused undue anxiety and stress.

My time taken to respond to the Notice and initial panic surely should be compensated?

What do you think please?

[daveiron]

My thinking is . 'you have made a claim accusing me of an offence which
you now know to be proveably untrue,you have caused me severe distress
at a time when i am recovering from a serious medical condition. You have
accessed my personal data and added my name to a list.
All this is due to the incompetance and lack of care by your staff.
I require to be compensated for the stress you have caused my due to your
negligence'
Send to the chief constable ,its got to be worth a stamp.

[assassin]

And Compensation?

Note the wording "my vehicle was monitored last month exceeding the speed limit by 6MPH".

Now ask some poigniant questions such as "who monitored this alleged offence" followed by "what equipment were they using" followed by "were they a constable" who was driving the vehicle and what evidence do you possess of an offence.

[flyingfish]

More likely the volunteer misread the number I reckon. The police just receive a list of alleged offending vehicles by the volunteers. Unless the cop couldn't read the guy's writing of course.

The schemes threaten prosecution of repeat offenders but I've not yet known it happen.

[Biggiebest]

Letter being posted today to the Chief Constable.
It will be interesting to see if there is a response.
Thanks for your input everyone. All noted and included where appropriate.
BB

[assassin]

More likely the volunteer misread the number I reckon.  The police just receive a list of alleged offending vehicles by the volunteers.  Unless the cop couldn't read the guy's writing of course.

The schemes threaten prosecution of repeat offenders but I've not yet known it happen.

Because they cannot prosecute as this is not based upon first hand knowledge of a constable, he/she is only acting upon the say so of another person/s and this immediately constituted procedural impropriety and any corrupt star chamber (magistrates court) would throw it out because it would immediately be overturned in a real court and this opens up the potential for a claim against them and potentially a huge class action which would be expensive, remember the lice are stupid, but not that stupid.

This would also bring the volunteers credibility into question, are they adequately trained, certified and competent to use the equipment, and this is before calibration enters the equation.

[flyingfish]

Of course they can prosecute an offence without a Police officer having first hand knowledge, I'm sure that applies to the vast majority of criminal convictions. So following normal conventions they could initiate proceeding based on witness statements from the volunteer(s) involved, and maybe from the Police officer overseeing the scheme, but if challenged then the volunteer would have to take the stand. I would guess most don't sign up expecting that. However if it did get that far then questions of competence, training etc would be considered by the court on the facts of the specific case.

I can only see it happening in the most extreme case. The more normal process would be if the Speedwatch project showed a real problem, then actual cops would turn up with their own gear.

[assassin]

They cannot use them to prosecute as they are untrained volunteers using equipment which they are untrained for let alone the issues with calibration which must be done every shift by an approved and trained constable. Showing them how to aim and pull a trigger does not constitute training and it matters not what they say in any witness statement as they have still got the issues of training and calibration to overcome.

How do I know? been there and done that.

As you quite rightly say, if there was an issue the real po-lice would be there.

[aarons1950]

Someone might of cloned your plates.

[assassin]

Had that myself once and fortunately I followed the same vehicle as mine while wearing the cloned plates and a quick ((( call saw an instant response and the lice caught them.