Welsh Speed cameras

[nigel bickle]

Well, I've just received a Welsh speeding ticket, forwarded on to me, for an alleged offence in Caerphilly earlier this month.

 

Think there might be a few problems with it...

 

The Registration (N10 JEL) is on retention -and has been for at least 5 years.

 

The 'owner' is totally unknown to me -although they reckon he lives at my house.

 

The car ( BMW) is clearly not mine, as I've not had a roadworthy Beemer in several years, although my old 635 is still sitting quietly.

 

Finally no one in my family has been anywhere in Wales this year.

 

So, either a cloned plate, a Doovla foul up or Scamera cock up?

 

 

I've written the first draft, & I think I'm going to enjoy this...

[Rocket88]

spot of cloning, methinks..........

[Ratdat]

You would think that if the reg is on retention, they'd know that as it'd have to go via the DVLA to get your details. You'd think that would would tell them that it can't both be on retention AND worn by a BMW at the same time and their records would show it to be the former rather than the latter. Alas that kind of logic is almost certainly too complex for their IT systems.

[Partridge]

Have you phoned to Citizen's Advice people? They may be able to help...and you have a 635??

 

All Welsh people are bastards etc etc.

[nigel bickle]

Yup. It was the retention bit that intrigued me too.

 

Since its not registered to any car, how the hell can that happen?

[Ratdat]

It is odd. I could understand it if they took the reg and just used the DVLA database to get an address associated with it but for them to have a make of car, either someone would have had to manually identify the car from the picture, which is unlikely or that plate would actually have to be allocated to a BMW on the DVLA system. Not only allocated but registered at your address. Bizarre.

[CortinaDave]

Just ran it through mycarcheck and ask mid - no data found, so that number is definitely not live at the moment. Eejits.

 

The guy at the DVLA must have looked it up and thought " I can't find this, ach it's probably Nigel Bickle's, he owns half the old motors in the country anyway"

[Bren]

They will try anything to extract money from somebody.

 

I have heard of parking enforcement companies pursuing garages because the reg plates of the vehicle have the dealer details on them.

[nigel bickle]

Yup

 

Time to have some fun. Naturally I've emailed them -and the letter goes in tonights post.

 

Happy days

[Micrashed]

I'd let them take me all the way to court myself. Just beacuse Im an evil twisted bastard with nothing better to do with my time.

[nigel bickle]

Me too.

 

 

Especially as they are trying to do me for 35 in a 30 limit! Seriously?

 

I thought the Guidelines stated 10% + 2 mph? Seems the Welsh don't think so.

 

Gits

[warren t claim]

My money is it being a similar vanity plate with a couple of strategic black screws added, Ask for a copy of the photo.

[nigel bickle]

I have already done so.

 

But, surely the plate shouldn't be 'on the system'?  Its held on retention. Surely it shouldn't have come up?

 

Does that mean I can screw it onto something & drive around without ANPR pinging off?

 

Why aren't I getting swamped with DVLA  ''PAY US TAX''  type letters?

 

Weird. Goes some way towards confirming they've not got a  clue.

[Cavcraft]

Me too.

 

 

Especially as they are trying to do me for 35 in a 30 limit! Seriously?

 

I thought the Guidelines stated 10% + 2 mph? Seems the Welsh don't think so.

 

Gits

 

 

I was always told that if they decided to do you at 32mph in a 30 zone, they could if they wanted to. Whether that's true or not is subjective, but quite a few people have said it.

[Micrashed]

 

WORD (from the Lancashire Scamera Partnership 2004) Click on pic to enbiggerize)

[CortinaDave]

technically they can indeed do you for 31 in a 30, but because that would be seen as exceedingly cuntish in the public view, they tend not to.

 

The North Wales speed camera pratnership are especially crusading though apparently, the ex chief of police Richard Brunstrom  was "mr Speed Camera" and became notorious nationally for his motorist persecution.

 

Nice to see he believed in what he preached:

 

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/former-north-wales-police-chief-6595042

[richardmorris]

Mr Brunstrom is also a Druid now apparently.

 

On his days off he used to join the speed trap police vans on the A5 and A55 for fun.

 

Now there's someone who needs to get a hobby. And trying to claim he thought a date on a tax disc was the starting date - has he no experience of UK VED? As a policeman he should know that ignorance of the law is no defence.

 

The A5 into Llangollen goes something like 60, 30, 40, 30, 60, 30 all within a mile or so. Guess where they put the camera vans.

[Cavcraft]

Bloody hell that A5 was a bastard, pretty sure the coppers used it as a training route as they'd quite often overtake my 7.5 tonner approaching blind or dangerous corners with 3 or 4 in the car and no sirens going.

[andy18s]

Brunstrom was committed to driving bikers out of N Wales

I personally know 2 bikers who rode around a corner to be confronted with the Police helicopter hovering just over the road

He was also responsible for putting hidden cameras in the back of a horsebox parked at the side of the road,and allowed a full view picture of a decapitated biker to be used Without the families knowledge in a "scare-mongering" campaign

[fordperv]

Brunstrom = sausage gargler

[tooSavvy]

SPEED! .... no not the film.

 

My 'encounter group' was staffed with willing rowers - stats on the board showed 60% were 30 + 1 to 5.

 

I felt my mojo had intervened when my indiscretion flagged - way - WAY off the board @ 61 in a 50!

 

W.T.F. ?

 

 

 

...... I just jogged along, then went home

 

TS

[Guest Breadvan72]

Joking apart, 35 mph in an urban or village area that has a 30 mph limit because of pedestrians and parked cars and so on can be more dangerous than we might initially think.  Context is everything, innit.  

[michael1703]

Should of driven more Caerphilly.......

[Louise2cv]

I don't get the horsebox outrage. If you're speeding, you're speeding. Why does it matter where the camera was or what the camera looks like?  

 

In fact having "stealth" speed cameras such as this might be miles better than marked ones. They'd catch people speeding and the rest of the morons on the road could get on without slamming on and doing 25mph regardless of whether the camera is in a 30,40 or 60.

[Guest Breadvan72]

I agree that moaning about speed traps etc is daft.  Do people expect plod to announce all their activities in advance on the internetz?  

[garbaldy]

I agree that moaning about speed traps etc is daft. Do people expect plod to announce all their activities in advance on the internetz?

Nope they announce it here in the local papers.

[Lankytim]

I think they are legally obliged to use marked cameras rather than hidden ones. I agree it defeats the object but thems the rules apparently!

 

Regarding the speeding ticket, its not unheard of for the DVLA to allocate the same plate to two cars in error, especially private plates which are worth a bit of money and they end up selling twice.

 

Another theory..

Knowing how glacially slow some government departments are, maybe they can see its on retention but assume its now been allocated to a car but the system hadn't been updated yet?

[mat_the_cat]

I don't get the horsebox outrage.

 

I think the outrage is because they claim the cameras aren't to raise revenue, but to act as a visual deterrent to speeding. So the argument goes that if the cameras are hidden, they won't get people to slow down and hence won't improve road safety. Another way of looking at it would be that if you know there may be hidden cameras in horse boxes etc, you may be more inclined to drive within the speed limit (whether appropriate or not) at ALL times...

 

As it happens, I've been caught twice (including annoyingly whilst speeding up at the end of a 50 mph limit, once the national speed limit sign came into sight!) and had the letter through the post. But with a huge stroke of luck, both coincided with moving house and I never heard any more I even gave them my new address on one occasion but never heard anything back!

[mouseflakes]

Many years ago I got a summons for a parking violation related to a car with a registration that was two digits different to the one I owned. The offence also occured several weeks before I even owned a car of any sort.

 

There must be a 'system' that goes through all the possible permutations of registration number from the best match to the worst, hoping that eventually some poor innocent will panic and 'pay up' to help balance the books.

 

The Doovla ought to have a Bickle Filter that intercepts any outgoing letters addressed to Nige and directs them to an employee with an IQ in double figures at least, who might 'sanity check' them. Would save considerable expense I'm sure.

[nigel bickle]

Been told NOT to send the letter fro 2 weeks, so there may be a delay in response....