Police out to target 'loophole' drivers

[Kahnee]

From PA:

 

Dangerous drivers who use expensive lawyers to escape conviction are to be targeted by police, a senior officer warned today.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) wants police and Crown Prosecution Service lawyers to make stronger cases against drivers whose legal teams use loopholes in the law to get them off.

One chief constable said that officers would be "looking for" motorists who had been "unjustly acquitted".

But the comment by Meredydd Hughes, the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, led to civil rights group Liberty warning that this could see police unlawfully targeting individuals they believe have been unfairly acquitted of motoring offences.

Police across Britain have voiced frustration that lawyers well versed in motoring laws are using small print to win acquittals for people charged with reckless or drink-driving.

Acpo is also introducing a team made up of a lawyer and a former police officer to help prosecute speed camera cases.

The association hopes motorists will decide against contesting their speeding charge because if they lose, their costs will include up to £4,000 for the team.

Celebrities have used lawyers such as Nick Freeman, who is known as Mr Loophole. His past clients include Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham.

Mr Hughes said there was increasing frustration with lawyers who use legal small print to help win acquittals for clients.

"There have been a number of cases where people feel that justice has not been done, both in the drink-driving world and in other cases where people have evaded the law having driven cars recklessly and at very high speeds," he told the BBC.

"I think my colleagues in the roads policing groups will share my anger when people are unjustly acquitted and I'm sure they'll be looking for those drivers.

"And if they haven't mended their ways we have an attitude in the police service that we'll see them again sometime," he said.

Mr Freeman said today he believed drivers would not be wrongly acquitted if the police brought cases to court properly.

He said: "It shouldn't make any difference whether people are being `unjustly acquitted' or not.

"There are no such things as `loopholes' in these cases - it is simply the word of the law. People are acquitted because the police are not doing their job properly."

The celebrity lawyer said there were some cases where it was morally wrong that someone had been acquitted, but it was his job to look at the law.

He said: "Many people are acquitted because the case has not been investigated in the right way. I am a lawyer, I'm not taking the moral high ground. This is what lawyers do. I'm not there on my throne moralising to people.

"I look at things from the legal aspect and if people aren't doing their job properly, that's what I look at in the law."

Mr Freeman said he thought there was a risk that police would "over- prioritise" prosecuting drivers.

He said: "I think there's a risk this will become an over-priority for police instead of other more serious cases, involving more serious crimes."

Mark McArthur-Christie, director of policy for the Association of British Drivers, said: "This is a very dangerous thing.

"The first thing is, if drivers have been genuinely dangerous and have been convicted for dangerous driving, careless driving or for not being in proper control, which are all serious offences, then this is a good thing. We need to prosecute people for that.

"But there's a world of difference between that and getting a high-profile lawyer to get you out of a 35mph in a 30mph zone conviction.

"There's very little doubt that drivers are viewed as an easy target.

"This continuing view that you must prosecute drivers for every offence is driving a wedge between the police and the public.

"There are 12 million people with points on their licence in the UK, and we have an active driving population of 26 million. If half of all drivers have broken the law, maybe we have to look at the law.

"If it was 12 million for those major driving offences then we would have big problem, but it's not. In fact, the number of serious "real world" offences has dropped. The number of people convicted by speed cameras has gone up through the roof.

"If this is people getting off on technicalities on dangerous driving offences, then we have very little sympathy for those people. It's not on.

"But at the same time, if we target people getting off for smaller convictions then that becomes a problem."

[ManxRed]

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[Kahnee]

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[Kahnee]

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