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Trio who took 'extraordinary lengths' to evade speeding fines are sentenced

June 18, 2011

Three work colleagues from Gloucester who went to illegal lengths to evade speeding fines collected in Bracknell have been sentenced to imprisonment, a driving ban and community service.

On Friday, November 12, and Saturday, November 20, of last year an Audi A3 was captured exceeding the speed limit along the A329.

The driver of the vehicle, Zoe Freeman, was sent a notice of intended prosecution for these offences by police, however, she replied with a written letter stating her records did not show the vehicle being in that particular area at the suggested times and requested photographic evidence.

Officers then sent images of the vehicle to Ms Freeman but later received a second reply stating the captured car was not the one owned by the registered keeper.

During a hearing at Oxford Crown Court, it was heard photographs were sent to police from the company the driver worked for showing the Audi with different number plates.

A print out from a tracker device fitted to the vehicle also showed the car was stationary on the two days concerned.

Following further police enquiries, however, it was later discovered the tracker device for this particular car had been fitted to a car owned by a company director just days before the first speeding offence was committed.

The print out from the tracker device was also found to have been altered, while evidence also revealed a new set of number plates was purchased just before the pictures of the Audi were sent to the police, the court heard.

The trio pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by changing the tracker device in a company car, altering documentation and using false number plates.

For her misdemeanours, Ms Freeman, who is 27 and from Over in Gloucester, was sentenced to 42 days in prison and disqualified from driving for six months.

During sentencing at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday, June 16, transport manager Leighton Jones, 35, from Gloucester, was also sent to prison, for 28 days.

Vehicle electrician, 35-year-old Marvyn Robinson, from Quedgeley, was sentenced to 200 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £400 costs.

Speaking after the sentencing PC Carl Lewis, from the fixed penalty support unit at Thames Valley Police, said: “These people went to extraordinary lengths to evade their responsibilities.

“The law requires that drivers are nominated when a Road Traffic Act offence is committed and most people do comply with this.

“Those people who we suspect to be flouting this law will be investigated and prosecuted.”

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Most recent user comments 4 of 4

I'm afraid I don't agree with CW or Peter Roberts, I'm sure you would feel extremely different if someone were speeding even by 2mph and happened to either knock down or lose control and crash into a loved one and either disable them for life or worse kill them... then I'm sure you would be insisting that the police 'waste' public money to bring the guilty party to trial!! Of course, it may well be that you are the sort of people that flout speed limits yourselves, even by 2mph and think it's acceptable and don't want the police to 'waste' public money bringing you to justice. Some people won't be happy until they have killed someone, it's just utter stupidity and negligence. Speed limits are there for a reason, how about people start obeying them, then we wouldn't have these problems would we? But no, people don't think of that sort of simple, sensible and obvious reasoning!!

Chocolatee
20/06/2011 at 23:21

Completely agree with the comments from CW and Peter Roberts. I was the victim of some road-rage lunatic yesterday, who was not only driving dangerously (tail-gating, on the wrong side of the road, both hands off steering wheel at times) - but who also illegally stopped his car in the road and got out of his car to berate me for pulling out in front of him. This was pulling out of my own drive, which is yards away from the blind bend he came screaming off of (on a 30mph road). I rang the police with the car details, but was told that, with no witnesses, there was nothing that could be done - unless it turned out he had been reported for the same thing before, or was to do it again. Frankly, I think road rage and the sort of dangerous driving he displayed far worse than exceeding the speed limit on a major route or motorway. But the police would not even entertain the idea of going to 'have a quiet word with him'. How policing has changed in this country.

Sus, Sandhurst
20/06/2011 at 10:52

I wish the police would go to the same trouble to catch burglars and property vandals.

The poor motorist pays every time for a minor 'crime' of going a bit too fast where nobody is hurt, no property damaged and nobody inconvenienced but a proper crime where people lose valuable property or are hurt and the police don't give seem to care. Just palm you off with a crime number and they wash their hands of it.

Go 2mph too fast on a motorway and they will move heaven and earth to convict.

Something wrong somewhere.

Peter Roberts, Telford
20/06/2011 at 00:18

How much public money has been wasted on this fanatical ego trip by the police? For a technical offence that was clearly so trivial the amount by which the car was exceeding the speed limit isn't even mentioned. It is only because the law unjustly tries to force drivers to plea guilty that this fiasco ever arose. Can we go back to proper policing now please?