A few comments about our local Chief Police Constable here in South Yorkshire, Med Hughes, who you may have heard of.
He was until recently the A.C.P.O. spokesman for Road and Traffic Policing (Speed Cameras).
He was banned from driving for 6 weeks yesterday, for doing 90 in a 60 limit, whilst on holiday in North Wales. He does have two previous “stickers” on his licence.
Anyway it’s nice to see his old mate Richard treats all speeders the same.
He had two previous dates since September, when he should have appeared before the Court, but both had to be postponed. Presumably because he wanted to make a personal appearance but wasn’t actually available on that day. I assume if he did want to make a personal appearance at Court, they sent him the standard letter saying that if he decided not just to reply by post saying he was guilty, he would incur the wrath of the court and be liable to a much higher fine, for wasting their time.
It’s nice to know that all people are treated equally.
Now he will be banned over the Christmas period, probably whilst he is off on some extended holiday.
Our local radio station contacted him and asked who would be paying for the driver, who will now be picking him up every day for work. He refused to reply, and said this type of request must be put through his office. They rang his office and were told that they did not have this information, and the BBC would have to contact Med Hughes himself. So I think we can guess that he won’t be paying.
It’s nice to know that all people are treated equally.
I work for Rotherham Council, and we have a van shared by lots of people for moving IT equipment about. Recently we received a NIP for somebody speeding at 40 mph in a 30 limit in our van. Our initial reply was that we were not sure who was using it at that time, we got a nasty letter back stating that for company vehicles, there was a responsibility for the company to maintain accurate logs of use so anybody caught this way could be prosecuted, if the company did not do this the Chief Executive (or other head officer) would have to accept the responsibility and the fine etc..
Suppose this is fair, as it means that any company car drivers or van drivers etc. will be fined like us private motorists/bikers and are not allowed to get away with things.
It’s nice to know that all people are treated equally.
A South Yorkshire Police officer was recently caught speeding and a NIP was issued, Med Hughes explained that there was no possible way that he could identify his officer from the photo supplied, so nobody could be nicked.
It’s nice to know that all people are treated equally.
Strangely he did not seem to get the letter about the Chief Officer being held responsible and getting the points etc., if he did he obviously ignored it.
It’s nice to know that all people are treated equally.
A little later, in an unusual moment of candour, he told the media, that his officer could not be named as it would be extremely embarrassing for him/her.
Er, not really if the person could in no way be identified.
It’s nice live in a country where all people are treated equally, and CPOs occasionally speak honestly.
In another recent incident, another police officer was nicked for doing 50 in a 40 zone through a camera. There was no prosecution as he was attending an emergency. The local press questioned why he had not got the Blues and Twos on, Med Hughes explained that most of his officers would not put them on in this sort of emergency unless they started to get stuck in traffic, in this case, it was an emergency, and the excess speed was justified.
The local press managed to get hold of some CCTV film of the officer, minutes after he had gone through the camera, in a local take away a few hundred metres past the camera. He went in and came back out of the takeaway a couple of mins later with 4 or 5 bags of nosh that had obviously been pre ordered. He got back in his (probably) illegally parked car, and went back down the road in the opposite way to which he came. This was obviously an emergency, as how can our local South Yorkshire Force be expected to serve it’s people if they are all suffering from malnutrition. The press took this up further with Med, but nothing changed.
It’s nice to know that all people are treated equally.
It turns out that 24 other police officers have recently been caught speeding, but all of these could not be identified as the police don’t keep such records of vehicle use.
It’s nice live in a country where all people are treated equally, and obviously shows that the police have learnt from their earlier failures to provide this information.If you do not want to get nicked for speeding, break the law again by refusing to give the information and get away with it.
And on a final note - not certain how many times exactly, but Med Hughes’ driver has been nicked at least once or twice for speeding, (With Med himself in the back seat!). This was, on one occasion, for doing 90 plus on a motorway, whilst he was late for an appointment, (the driver obviously). We have to assume that Med did not notice that his driver was travelling 20 odd miles per hour faster than all the other cars on the M1 at the time, or obviously he would have had to arrest his driver on the spot, then again it may just have been him who was late for a meeting and he had instucted his driver to get his foot down, so it was obviously the fault of the........................er.........................
.................. er..... oh yes ....his driver .It’s nice to know that all people are treated equally.
