UK driver fined £440 trying to warn oncoming motorists of speed trap ahead.

Run_to_da_hills

"A driver has been convicted of a criminal offence for flashing his headlights at oncoming motorists to warn them of a police speed trap ahead. Michael Thompson, 64, believed he was doing his ‘civic duty’ by alerting drivers on the opposite side of a dual carriageway.

When stopped by a police officer Thompson disagreed with the suggestion that he was ‘perverting the course of justice’ and was then allegedly told: ’I was going to let you off with a caution - but I’m not now.’

Thompson denied wilfully obstructing a policewoman in the execution of her duty on July 21 last year, but was convicted after a trial at Grimsby Magistrates Court. He ended up £440 out of pocket after being fined £175, ordered to pay £250"

Seems a bit ott to recieve a criminal conviction for this. I believe Gardai can prosecute for the same offense here but not sure if anyone has ever been convicted or fined.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343959/Driver-flashed-headlights-warn-fellow-motorists-speed-trap-hauled-court-fined-obstructing-police.html

gaz wac

He didnt see that coming !!

Iwannahurl

How do you warn oncoming motorists not to flash their lights?

PCPhoto

better hide that article or they'll try do it here too (I know its the law but its not enforced)

guy in the article made 1 mistake.

NEVER EVER ADMIT ANYTHING TO THE TRAFFIC GARDAI/COPS - deny deny deny - let the burdon of proof be on them and its simply a case of your word against theirs. (and any possible CCTV cameras in the area)

in fairness its bad form to prosecute for something like that - he may not have been warning others of a speed trap and could have been telling them to slow down anyway - I tend to do it to people.... flash the lights to tell them to slow down (Cant remember if I've ever done it after passing a speed check) ...but I know I've flashed my lights at other drivers whom I'd consider speeding excessively in the past.

mickdw

Seeing as the authorities try to say that speed checks are well sign posted and that they use bright coloured vans to alert drivers to their presence, surely this driver was just helping them with their task, which if we are to believe them is simply to slow down traffic & not a revenue generating exercise.

The Dagda

PCPhoto wrote: »

...but I know I've flashed my lights at other drivers whom I'd consider speeding excessively in the past.

oh you're one of those people!?! Ugh...

jimmynokia

thats a load of bollix if you ask me.
flashing your lights and getting fined just say your wer testing them LOL


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlight_flashing

PCPhoto

The Dagda wrote: »

oh you're one of those people!?! Ugh...

yes - and if we all slow down there'll be no accidents (haven't you heard the NRA adverts ...its speed that kills)


(where's the sarcastic smiley)

seriously though I had a guy flash at me last week and by the time I found out what he was on about I had gone past the "mobile camera van" .... dunno if I was speeding or not.... but the van is set up to catch people on one side of a road..... anyone going away from the camera (back of the van) cant get done for speeding.

I do break the speeding laws (occasionally) - I think a lot of the limits are wrong, I think almost everyone breaks the speed limit...but some people take the pi$$ travelling in excess of 150km/hr on a motorway is not as bad as doing 100km in a 60km zone ...or travelling 80km in a built up area.

A lot of roads have been "downgraded" because a new motorway was built nearby - an example would be the Kinnegad road off the N4 motorway - since the motorway was built the road which was 100km/hr was changed to 80km/hr ...its a straight stretch of road.

jimmynokia

PCPhoto wrote: »

yes - and if we all slow down there'll be no accidents (haven't you heard the NRA adverts ...its speed that kills)


(where's the sarcastic smiley)

seriously though I had a guy flash at me last week and by the time I found out what he was on about I had gone past the "mobile camera van" .... dunno if I was speeding or not.... but the van is set up to catch people on one side of a road..... anyone going away from the camera (back of the van) cant get done for speeding.

I do break the speeding laws (occasionally) - I think a lot of the limits are wrong, I think almost everyone breaks the speed limit...but some people take the pi$$ travelling in excess of 150km/hr on a motorway is not as bad as doing 100km in a 60km zone ...or travelling 80km in a built up area.

A lot of roads have been "downgraded" because a new motorway was built nearby - an example would be the Kinnegad road off the N4 motorway - since the motorway was built the road which was 100km/hr was changed to 80km/hr ...its a straight stretch of road.

and most of the M50 is 100km which is boolix too

TheZ

Fairly certain people were prosecuted for this and convicted before Kilcock District Court a few years ago (Brophy J. presiding). Not sure if they appealed convictions.

I remember it being reported that AGS were down the road from a speed trap deliberately to catch people flashing lights.

The thing is that if you do it and they prosecute you may need to go to Circuit Court for the law to be "properly" applied at which stage you are two days out of work and probably have spent some money on a barrister and solicitor in the Circuit Court.

Loco

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

and was then allegedly told: ’I was going to let you off with a caution - but I’m not now.’

He should have stayed quiet and let her enjoy her power trip!

Lord Derpington

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

" He ended up £440 out of pocket after being fined £175, ordered to pay £250"

£175 + £250 = £425

Must of spend the extra £15 on a bribe..

KingIsabella

This kind of thing undermines their whole " our aim is not to prosecute, but to make people slow down" shpeil.

charlemont

I always flash other cars for at least 10KM after I see Gardaí ...

Matt Simis

charlemont wrote: »

I always flash other cars for at least 10KM after I see Gardaí ...

10km is way too far. Occasionally people flash me or near me and if I dont see something obvious within the next minute I start to think the front is hanging off the car or something else terribly wrong. I then start to over analyse noises etc..

keithclancy

I always warn the oncoming driver, same effect anyway, i.e. they slow down.

Would never admit it though, would just say I was driving a different car and the windscreen washer was on the other side.

bmw535d

the idiot should have just said, oh i ment to wash the wind screen and forgot that the stalk is on the other side, just pretend he's used to jap cars or something.

Run_to_da_hills

He should have just said that he saw some pigs on the the road and wanted to warn other drivers not to hit them.

jimmynokia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlight_flashing

there is many excuses he could of used and how can that stand up in court its just boolix utter boolix

Stevie Dakota

Funny that, I went through a Garda checkpoint yesterday and a car approaching it from the opposite direction did not have his lights on, it was just getting dark, I nearly flashed him for his lights but thought that the Garda, who were still in view, might interpret it wrong way.

slimjimmc

greenfly wrote: »

£175 + £250 = £425

Must of spend the extra £15 on a bribe..

Nah, it went to some "victims’ surcharge" thingy.

The quotation in the OP had an incomplete sentence:

He ended up £440 out of pocket after being fined £175, ordered to pay £250 costs and a £15 victims’ surcharge.

dr.fuzzenstein

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

He should have just said that he saw some pigs on the the road and wanted to warn other drivers not to hit them.

You are a very cheeky person!:D:D:D
I always flash other drivers if there's cops about, have saved many from tickets and been saved myself on occasion!
Seems kind of a pointless fine since they publish speed camera locations. And doesn't it get people to slow down?
It's a bit like the story of the clamping company that sued a shop in the UK for warning people that there's clampers about. The basis of their at best frivolous lawsuit: Loss of income.:eek:

GTE

If its on a road that has a stupidly low limit then I can see it being ok.

On crappy little regional roads that speeders could cause serious problems on then I think its a very bad thing to do.

Skuxx

PCPhoto wrote: »

but the van is set up to catch people on one side of a road..... anyone going away from the camera (back of the van) cant get done for speeding.

The vans can get you going in both directions!

ted1

typical women cop

Flesh Gorden

My grandad never undrstood the 'flash to warn' of something ahead and would get really angry and swerve at anyone that did flash him

his eyesight was terrible which didn't help either, and I don't remember seatbelts in that old granada, scary when I think back



I wouldn't risk flashing anyone myself with garda checkpoints, too risky,

I flash someone if they've no lights on which I see far too often if I finish my shift in the early hours of the morning,
I've seen some crazy sleep/drink educed things at 5-6am


I did flash the local garda van once who were driving around for at least a week with one headlight out after a tip, taught it was a regular transit till it got closer.... my bad

-Chris-

ted1 wrote: »

typical women cop

Give the sexism a rest please.

jamieh

My Dad got caught between Dublin and Cork years ago...I'd say it was around 2002.

Unfortunately an unmarked car caught him, brought him to court and he was fined a couple of hundred quid ...700 rings a bell, think it was in or around that figure.

Big Nasty

HTF can someone NOT come up with an excuse for that?

Letting someone out
Trying to wash my windows and hit wrong stalk
Warning of road hazzard
Alerting driver to his full beams
Saw a chap I know
Letting your presence be known to a driver wrongly in the passing lane

Senna

My cousin was charged with ‘perverting the course of justice' when he was caught doing this between Sligo and Donegal about 2 years ago.
He flashed a a whole line of traffic coming the other direction, one of the cars was a unmarked garda car, the garda car turned round and caught him down the road. Don't know what he said to the garda, he's a nice fella so probably admitted it straight away. He got a fine, not sure how much, must find out.

TheNog

If I remeber correctly it is a maximum fine of €3,000 and as someone correctly said Brophy did convict at least one driver of it. So not a great idea to do it.

Whatever about flashing for a speed check I would always advise to never ever flash for a checkpoint. A checkpoint is not always about tax and insurance but also includes monitoring the movement of criminals, disqualified drivers etc etc.

So next time you are driving to work or wherever and flash oncoming traffic when you pass a checkpoint, think that the occupants of one of those vehicles could be on their way to burgle your home.

bladebrew

i used to see this years ago on the dublin to cork road, i was only a kid so it may have been 15 years ago! if you saw a few cars in a row flashing their lights there was definetly a check point up ahead,
i would never flash anyone to warn them, some numpties i see deserve to be caught speeding,

it seems to be a change in opinion like what happened with drink drivers, years ago it was "grand" now they are scum!!

bmw535d

alan1990 wrote: »

The vans can get you going in both directions!

you sure? my radar detector bleeps for about a mile approaching the van that has its back end to me, and only bleeps about 50m after i pass the van?

one2one

bmw535d wrote: »

you sure? my radar detector bleeps for about a mile approaching the van that has its back end to me, and only bleeps about 50m after i pass the van?

It can catch you on each side of the road, i.e. in both directions is what that means, not approaching and leaving the area of the van.