The story begins on 1st June last year, when Mrs Headroom & I were traveling to Taumaranui. It was the Monday morning of Queens Birthday weekend, and we were towing my light trailer to collect a bucket for Mrs H. We had agreed to take it easy, as we weren't under pressure time-wise and we knew there'd be cops everywhere. About 15km before Otorohanga, I noticed red'n'blues flashing in the rear-view mirror, so I pulled over. "Clocked you at 113kph, Sir. That's 23kph over the limit for towing a trailer, Sir". We were shocked, firstly for being called "Sir", and secondly as I had deliberately been maintaining my speed at 100-105kph. We stood on the side of the road for almost 40 minutes discussing speed, safety, accidents etc. He told us he'd pulled burning bodies out of vehicles at a multiple-fatal accident in Benneydale less than 48 hours earlier, and was still very emotional about the event when talking about it. He wrote the ticket and we eventually got going again. Kinda spoilt the trip, but that was minor compared to the shock I got a few months later when a bailiff turned up to take my licence. Transpired that this was the fourth ticket I'd had within two years (by 9 days!) and my demerits were now at 105. Bugger. I saw a lawyer and we looked at various angles, without success. We considered the logistics of applying for a day-licence, but that was going to be expensive and inconvenient even if it were granted. I read the laws referring to traffic, and looked at the operation of speed detection equipment trying to find something useful to defend myself with, figuring i had nothing further to lose. Walking for three months held little appeal. I finally found an angle which the lawyer believed had merit, and i pursued various avenues to support my angle. The lawyer applied for a defended hearing, & we waited. Periodically a voice from the Justice dept would ring and tell me that my fine was overdue, and that I needed to pay it pronto. I'd remind the voice that I had applied to the Te Kuiti District Court for a hearing, and the voice would say, "ok, I'll call back in six weeks." Whatever. Then about three months ago, a different voice rang, got quite stroppy with me, and said that I needed to pay the fine to avoid a bailiff taking our possessions, and that I could apply to have the fine reversed if I was successful in court. I said "I don't think so!" She then wanted me to contact the court to find out why there had been such a long delay. I said that I was in no hurry to ring the court at all, which didn't go down well at all. The voice said that she would ring "on my behalf" and ring me back. The next day the voice rang back quite excited, saying "they have no record of your application for a hearing". She told me to drive down (!) to Te Kuiti and sort it out. I had a better idea, and went to the local district court in Pukekohe instead. Sure enough, a week later I had a court date. Fast forward to yesterday, and Mrs Headroom & I drove down to Te Kuiti for my hearing expecting to lose the entire day waiting around. We arrived about 15 minutes before the nominated time, and the place looked deserted. I had expected cars and people everywhere, but it didn't even look open. We went inside, and the chirpy young girl behind the security screen was busy advising another guy that there were no duty solicitors available, and to go into the courtroom to wait for the JP's to appear. We went into the courtroom, and discovered that there were only three of us scheduled to appear. This was going to be quick. We took a seat, and the police prosecutor came over and introduced himself to us, advising the guy who'd came in ahead of me that he could apply for diversion if he pleaded guilty. He then came over to us and apologised for the fact that the traffic officer who'd written my ticket was unable to appear, as he'd been booked in for minor surgery on Monday but the surgeon declined to operate for some reason and had sent the officer home with very strong antibiotics instead. As a result, he was unable to drive. The prosecutor said that he was going to apply to the JPs for an adjournment, wanting to postpone the hearing until when the officer was well again. Mrs Headroom wasn't impressed, commenting that she'd taken a day's leave. He responded by saying that her inconvenience wasn't relevant, until she pointed out that she was here as a witness. "Ooops, sorry" said the prosecutor. He was quite intrigued by the big bundle of documents I'd brought with me, and I gave him a brief taste of my line of defence. The JPs entered, and the first guy was called up. He pleaded guilty, and the JPs accepted the prosecutor's offer of diversion. He agreed to call into the Police Station next door later that morning. My name was called, and the prosecutor explained the officer's absence to the JPs. One of the JPs asked me for my thoughts, so I said, "my preference would be for the case to be dismissed! We've taken time off work and driven down from Auckland this morning". He replied, "I'm sure you would like the case to be dismissed!" I had nothing to lose by being a little cheeky, but based on that response it didn't seem likely to happen. The two JPs conferred for a few moments, and then one of them said, "We accept the inconvenience for you to return to court for a second hearing when the officer's health improves. You were booked for 113kph. If you had been doing 110kph, in all probability you wouldn't have even been stopped. Case dismissed!" The prosecutor approached and asked if I'd be willing to share my defence with him afterwards, given that it was now purely academic. i agreed, and we had an interesting meeting with him a short time later. He was surprisingly quite honest about his views of speed, policing of speed, and police policy in general. Interestingly, he wasn't certain if my defence would have been strong enough to win the case, and neither am I . . .
It pays to go the whole way if you can good on you Have done so with fines etc and been very suprised at results
Good story and outcome. I was nailed by a blitz on a 5 way intersection and the cop said " write in and you'll get off" , well I did and I didn't....so court it was. The crime was blocking the intersection, however you can't see the far side of it as you enter due to the rise in the road. I took lots of photos and wrote up a good story, went to court and the Cop was not able to attend due to him being off crime fighting.... The procsecutor asked for more time....I waited and the JP after 2 hours said that I had been very patient and dismissed the case. The prosecutor asked me my defence......I showed him the pics and he said " you were lucky "
Good on you! The good thing about JPs is that they are normal people, as opposed to judges who seem to live in another world. A while ago I had a guy crash into my car on a gravel road. He said I was going to fast blah blah blah red car blah blah boy racer blah blah. So we ended up in court. I showed the JP pictures of the skids which showed I was as far left as I could be and the other guy was in the middle of the road. The JP says to the guy the law says you must keep left, you weren't he was you lose case closed. It took about 5 mins.
way cool mr and mrs Max. Just occasionally horse sense turns up in the courts instead of the horses other end. DOnt ya just wish you could have presented all that info tho?
Jeez,surely going to jail for a few days would've been far less drama than all the phone calls and driving down into the uninhabited regions of NZ? You could've walked home afterwards even.
Hey Max, you just pricked my conscience with your story. You reminded me that I was booked on New Year's day back in '80, doing 125 kph in my Hunter up a steep incline just south of Wanganui. A plain cloths cop in a 2ltr Cortina flashed me from behind on the decline, so I pulled over. He asked what I had under the bonnet, I just replied a "worked Rootes". His next question was why was I driving so fast. I told him that I was running late for the Cemetery Circuit bike racing. He gave me the ticket and suggested I write into the Transport Dept if I disputed the speed. I did write in and told them that I was running late to pit crew for a competitor at that meet. From memory it was Crosby, but anyway from that day onwards, I don't know if the cop pulled the ticket, or his superior who may have been sympathetic towards motor cycle enthusiasts. I never got a summons, nor a reply to my letter. I did watch the racing, but I wasn't pit crewing that day.
1725 of raw power Rootes Group, now that's a BFTP moment. Always chose the Australian part of that group Except for a brief flirtation with a silly minx
"my preference would be for the case to be dismissed! lol max, waay cool, good on you!
My only memory of Hillman hunters were in the Post Office and the bonnet flying open over Newmarket Viaduct.....We had a Chevette and thrashed it mercilessly......thanks taxpayers for fun apprentice times.....
Dodgy, it was 1908cc with 161 Repco slippers. Had a set of 45 Dellorto's and other goodies. Did 15.9 sec at Thunder Park in full street garb. Volty, I had the same experience with my bonnet. It broke a rear hinge is it tried to fly over the roof. Quite a scary experience, at full noise. I was in Taranaki at the time, so I unbolted the good bracket, folded it in half and threw it in the back seat. Boy, I regreted that gung ho decision when I when found out the price to replace it.
I swapped a mint 1976 CB750 for a Singer Vague (Hunter with woodworm) that jumped out of 2 gears and had a stuffed motor.I thought I had the better end of the deal at the time....still do,the CB750 was more of a disappointment than the Singer.I never got the chance to ring it out and see what it would do - it's hard to find a downhill straight longer than 75Km.
modded my humber 80 with a floor change from a much fancier model, may have been from a super minx, thought i was the bees knees....a very persuasive wrecker at the time talked me out of a massive $22 for it...probably wasnt makin 22 bucks a week then...
Singer Vogue, strike a pose! You got it for the missus eh Motu? Y'all should have got done, in the wrong- man up and face the music- it comes with flashing lights and costs more than drinking in Auckland central. Win win situation. Pushbikes melt love handles..
To remove gearbox from Hillman Super Minx 1, remove the 8 bell housing bolts and gear shifter plate and shifter 2, remove the cross member and driveshaft 3, pull the box out 2 inches from bell housing 4, twist the box a quarter turn to the driver side 5, pull out another 2 inches 6, twist the box back to level position 7, use remaining swearwords and pull free of the car 8, lie in degreaser bath for 10-20 mins and scrub whole body with abandon
