Caught speeding - or was I?

mcatrophy · Aug 10, 2013

Through the post I received a letter from the Leicestershire Police. The meat of it:

Dear Sir,

MOTOR VEHICLE: YAMAHA FJR 1300 AS MOTORCYCLE REG. NO.: FE60MHY

The above vehicle, which is registered to you was detected on the 28th July 1013 at 09:29 hours on Ashby Road West, Belton exceeding the 40 mph speed limit. This vehicle was monitored by Community Speed Watch Volunteers who are working in partnership with Leicester Police.
...
No further action will be taken on this occasion but please ensure that in furure you comply with the speed limits. Police enforcement of the speed limit would have resulted in one of the following measures: a four hour Driver Education Workshop; an endorseable (sic) fixed penalty notice resulting in a £60 fine and 3 points on your license; or, possibly, court action with more severe penalties. Leicester Police will be monitoring this are and will carry out enforcement if drivers choose to ignore this advice to curb their speed.
...
Yours faithfully,

Graham Compton
Senior Traffic Management Officer

After I stopped panicking, I had a little think.

Would I ever have exceeded a posted speed limit? That thought didn't lead to any useful conclusion, so I thought a bit further.

The 28th July was a Sunday. What are the chances of me being out of bed, let alone out on the bike, at half past nine? And, after a quick browse of Google Maps, when have I ever gone anywhere near Belton?

So I composed an email and sent it off.

Sirs -

I have received a letter, signed by Graham Compton, warning me of an alleged speeding offence with my motorcycle FE60MHY, on 28th July 2013 at 09:29, on Ashby Road West, Belton, exceeding the 40mph speed limit.

If I had done so, I would accept this warning and act upon it.

However, I believe there has been a mistake, as I was not there at that time, nor was my motorcycle. Either whoever wrote down the number of the motorcycle mis-read it, or my numberplate has been cloned.

In either case, the real offender has not been warned.

Was there a photograph taken of the vehicle? That might help in finding out the truth.

My email was sent at 11:54. Amazingly, at 12:34 I received an email in response:

Sir
Please find enclosed our apology letter
regards

Wendy Edwards
Traffic Management Officer
Traffic Management Section
Part of the Tasking Directorate
Leicestershire Police
https://www.leics.police.uk
mailto: [email protected]
Switchboard +44 0 116 2222222
Ext No. 2444
Fax: +44 0 116 248 2447

And the letter?

Dear Sir

COMMUNITY SPEED WATCH

I refer to your e mail dated 2nd August 2013 concerning the above.

I am writing to apologise to you for inadvertently sending you a warning letter concerning excess speed on Ashby Road West, Belton. Regrettably it would seem that a Community Speed Watch volunteer made an error on site when making a note of the vehicle passing through the village. Your details will not appear on any database relative to this incident.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Compton
Senior Traffic Management Officer
Traffic Management Section

So in 40 minutes they've realised someone has made a mistake, and put out an official apology. Amazing.

I would surmise that the "Volunteers" were incompetent, and wrote down the wrong registration number, this was then processed through the DVLA*, which duly came up with my details. And the letter was sent out.

When my email was received, someone probably actually read the report and noticed that the vehicle involved was not a bike. Hence the immediate apology.

One up for the good (?) guys

.

Scans of the letters can be seen by clicking on the images below:

*DVLA: Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

Chuck35 · Aug 10, 2013

Interesting to note "Your details will not appear on any database relative to this incident."

That would imply there IS a database and being entered into it might not be a good thing.

Donal · Aug 10, 2013

Thanks for the heads up with the number - now how exactly do you go about doing this cloning thing.............................?

bgross · Aug 10, 2013

Poor Mall cops.

"I coulda been somebody... I coulda been a contender!"

This will NOT look good on their résumé.

mcatrophy · Aug 10, 2013

Chuck35 said:
Interesting to note "Your details will not appear on any database relative to this incident."That would imply there IS a database and being entered into it might not be a good thing.

In the UK any warning by the police (or these officially sanctioned "volunteers") will be recorded so that, the next time, you are more likely to be charged rather than warned.

Donal said:
Thanks for the heads up with the number - now how exactly do you go about doing this cloning thing.............................?

No problem. If ever you look at my web-site you can see my number plate in many of my pics. So, not much point trying to hide it.
As for the how, just get yourself a "show" plate fom one of the many providers you can find by doing a web search. Illegal for road use, but so is cloning. The stupidity of the law is that normal garages are not allowed to provide replacement plates even though they supplied the original. But plates are readily available over the Internet, I found this out when I wanted one that had the EU mark so I could travel on the Continent. To be legal I had to go to Halfords, not my dealer (or the Internet). I did say "stupid", didn't I?

lonerider · Aug 10, 2013

Obviously wasn't a good idea to let Mr. Magoo participate as a Community Speed Watch volunteer.

Gotta wonder how many other tags he's misread.

majicmaker · Aug 10, 2013

That's Funny! Who the Hell is up at 9 on a Sunday?! Noon, at the earliest!

)

bluesdog · Aug 10, 2013

I was once awakened out of a sound sleep, (I'd been on shift work), in the wee hours by a couple of Victoria city gendarmes, who claimed I had abandoned my motorcycle, which was on fire, in the middle of downtown Victoria.

This statement dispelled any lingering sleepiness, and my first thought was something like: !!!!!!!

The cops accompanied me to my locked garage, where my XS-11 dozed, safe and sound. After checking the plate, the two officers apologized, and said someone must have misread the number.

I had trouble getting back to sleep...

08FJR4ME · Aug 10, 2013

What the ______ (you fill in the blank here) is the would coming to. Community Speed Watch Volunteers?????

I never heared of such a thing. Don't people have better things to do. This is outright __________ (once again fill in the blank).

The list of states I will no longer visit is getting bigger by the day. It's bad enough I have to live where I am now and won't be able to get out for another 5 years at least.

Good night folks, Sleep well knowing that all your neighbors are willing to sell you out.

Aasland · Aug 10, 2013

mcatrophy said:
Chuck35 said:

Interesting to note "Your details will not appear on any database relative to this incident."That would imply there IS a database and being entered into it might not be a good thing.

Click to expand...

In the UK any warning by the police (or these officially sanctioned "volunteers") will be recorded so that, the next time, you are more likely to be charged rather than warned.

So you're saying that in the UK, you can be ticketed based on amateurish reporting from non-law-enforcement personnell ?!?

HotRodZilla · Aug 11, 2013

Holy ****...England has Hall Monitors. Jeebus!!

majicmaker · Aug 11, 2013

Yeah! That's gotta Suck! I'm sure it won't be too long before that happens here. Lets hope that its when we're all really old and can't ride anymore.....

wheatonFJR · Aug 11, 2013

HotRodZilla said:
Holy ****...England has Hall Monitors. Jeebus!!

RaYzerman19 · Aug 11, 2013

Aasland said:
mcatrophy said:

Chuck35 said:

Interesting to note "Your details will not appear on any database relative to this incident."That would imply there IS a database and being entered into it might not be a good thing.

Click to expand...

In the UK any warning by the police (or these officially sanctioned "volunteers") will be recorded so that, the next time, you are more likely to be charged rather than warned.

Click to expand...

So you're saying that in the UK, you can be ticketed based on amateurish reporting from non-law-enforcement personnell ?!?

You would be perhaps surprised to learn, that in many places, you or another citizen can report a violation, a "citizen's arrest" so to speak, and provided they are willing to go to court and testify, you can be charged. Mostly that won't happen, as it will be their word against yours, so evidence will be sketchy for them to act on........

Geezer · Aug 11, 2013

Ummm, yeah. Community speed watch volunteers? I suppose they have all bee given some sort of training that qualifies them to determine who was speeding and how fast, and their equipment has been calibrated and documented as such before they use it. I know the laws and culture are different from the USA, but it seems to empower people who would have to be overzealous in the enforcement. If they were not overzealous then they would not volunteer for duty.

Fly Bye · Aug 11, 2013

I can't stand a snitch, especially when they get it wrong.

mcatrophy · Aug 11, 2013

Aasland said:
mcatrophy said:

Chuck35 said:

Interesting to note "Your details will not appear on any database relative to this incident."

That would imply there IS a database and being entered into it might not be a good thing.

Click to expand...

In the UK any warning by the police (or these officially sanctioned "volunteers") will be recorded so that, the next time, you are more likely to be charged rather than warned.

Click to expand...

So you're saying that in the UK, you can be ticketed based on amateurish reporting from non-law-enforcement personnell ?!?

As far as I am aware, if their equipment is calibrated within a specified number of days, and it photographs the offending vehicle, it can lead to prosecution.
If not calibrated (or not photographed), it will still be put on a database, so that if you are found speeding again they are less likely to warn and more likely to prosecute.

Usually, these "volunteers" will be from the local community, and have asked for enforcement in their local area because they have safety concerns. Because there are too few traffic police around, this is the option the authorities have offered them.

Personally, I'd much rather have many more traffic police around to hopefully improve the appalling standard of driving that now exists in the UK. I can remember a time when there were many more police around, and UK drivers were of a generally high standard (not, in my opinion, a coincidence). But those times are long gone.

It's now all speed cameras, which is a cheap (some say easy revenue gathering) alternative to police that the authorities use so they can say that they are doing something. Hope that's not construed as a political statement.

weekend rider · Aug 11, 2013

Another way to look at it, they know where you are not at that time and on a sunday . Now the question is do they know where you are? If so than what a set up for a heist of your bike and anything else. Got to be care when responding to letter like that.. Just say'n

gixxerjasen · Aug 12, 2013

My bet...someone fat fingered the number when entering it into the computer. You wrote, then they pulled out the log sheet and compared what was written to what was entered and realized the mistake.

On a similar note, my wife was passing a stopped school bus that didn't have the stop arms out. As she passed by they put out the stop arms and she was photographed and ticketed for about $400. She wrote a nice letter stating what happened. They went back and checked the video and sent her a nice letter telling her that the issue was dropped. We got that letter yesterday. Woohoo!

Caught speeding - or was I?

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