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Thread: Jail for refusing to pay speed camera fine.

  1. #1
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    Jail for refusing to pay speed camera fine.

    N Z Herald

    Speed camera fine makes driver see red

    23.02.05
    by Alastair Sloane

    A British motorist jailed because he refused to pay a 60 ($148) speeding fine is to give evidence in the European Court of Human Rights to help to prove speed cameras are there only to raise cash.

    Ernest Harbon, 62, a painter and decorator, was caught doing 61km/h in a 50km/h zone. He went to traffic court to fight it. He said it was an open stretch of country road and he assumed the limit to be 65km/h. He refused the pay the fine.

    He was sentenced to 14 days in jail, handcuffed, put in a holding cell with a fellow charged with self-mutilation, and sent to Leicester prison, where he became prisoner number JH7915.

    Harbon's first night was spent locked in a cell with a male prostitute. Breakfast the next morning made him ill. He was taken to the prison doctor, who asked him what he was in for.

    "I'm making a stand against speed cameras," Harbon said.

    The doctor shook his hand. So did other prison staff as the word got round.

    Harbon was released after seven days for good behaviour. Wardens and inmates cheered as he departed.

    But since leaving prison he has suffered from severe depression and anxiety attacks and has twice been admitted to hospital.

    The British Government has revoked his driving licence because he refuses to admit his crime.

    He says the hidden mobile speed camera was illegally placed and no speed limit signs were visible. But he cannot afford to prove his case. He has no licence and no job.

    Harbon has received thousands of letters of support, including help from a company campaigning to stop the British Government's planned ban on radar detectors.

    Car Parts Direct sells radar detectors and cites independent research claiming that a motorist with a detector is 28 per cent less likely to have an accident. The company caused a ruckus in British political circles when it claimed its latest model could detect the latest speed cameras. It said the device was so good that motorists using it would have their speeding fine paid if they received a ticket while the unit was fitted.

    Company chief Mark Cornwall said: "The Government loves easy money from the motorist. Ernest had no chance. The Government wants to catch and fine motorists - it's not about slowing them down."

    Cornwall said that more than 15,000 motorists were in prison in Britain for various motoring offences - "yet only 10,178 housebreakers are under lock and key".

    "Speed camera revenue was around 112 million [$293 million] last year and still rising. A 60 [$157] speeding ticket is issued about every 15 seconds. At the last count, 286,186 motorists had their driving licences taken away - most due to the speed camera points system."

    Says Harbon: "When I get my licence back I will not drive without a radar detector. It's easy to slip over the limit. It has wrecked my life."
    “- He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.”

  2. #2
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    Well done that man. Telling "the man" where to stick it :spudbooge
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    Gummints everywhere should be on notice that their bullshit has gone too far. But, gods, the price for fighting them is high aint it?
    Do you realise how many holes there could be if people would just take the time to take the dirt out of them?

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    Remember the broadcasting tax (license fee).

    It got binned because it was un-economic, chancing non/slow payers was costing more than was being collected.

    A speeding infringement is a criminal offence & like all people charged with a criminal offence, you have a right to defend it in court.

    The cost to the goddamment of court proceedings likely to be greater than the amount of any fine collected.

    As I’ve said before if everyone defended their roadside tax invoices the system would break down & perhaps the police would receive some long overdue re-direction of their resources towards blah blah blah blah real criminals.

    I'd have to admit some of us should be stopped & told to behave from time to time but when govt. departments start budgeting on $$ from ever increasing road tax quotas it gets on my wick.

    Perhaps we need a ‘Legalize the ton’ political party?

    Alternative we could launch a campaign of civil obedience & obey all traffic regulations 100% of the time. That’d stuff their budgets.

    I doubt it’d do much for the road toll though!
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    Quote Originally Posted by BugSplat
    The cost to the goddamment of court proceedings likely to be greater than the amount of any fine collected.
    Not necessarily. IF it was done on a large scale, mebbe. But if it's just the odd one or two, it's "user pays", at $130 for your few minutes of saying your piece. Given that the courts run regardless of how many cases there are, it just increases their profitability.
    ... and that's what I think.

    Or summat.


    Or maybe not...

    Dunno really....


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    i would have just paid the fine, and taken the camera as recompense.
    If we stopped the unemployment benefit for those that have been unemployed for more than 1 year - we wouldnt need speed cameras.
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  7. #7
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    I hate to be the cynic here, but there are a couple of things I have to point out:

    First off, fixed cameras in the UK have to be, by law, VERY visible. They are painted bright yellow and there must be road signs indicating their upcoming prescence some time before you reach them, so as to ensure no panic braking. Even if it was a mobile unit, then they have to publicise, again by law, where they are going to be operating.

    If it was hidden, it would have been very easy to prove - no expensive court case needed.

    Second - he was put in prison with a self-mutilator? Sorry, but that isn't a crime, that is a medically diagnosed psychiatric disorder. You get treatment, not imprisonment. And an important point - the fellow SELF-HARMS. He doesn't hurt anyone else.

    And then he was put in with a prostitute? What was the prozzie going to do, solicit him? We've all got to earn a living somehow...

    And the food made him sick? It IS prison - and prison is supposed to be a deterrent! Marco Pierre White is not going to be producing the menu!

    As for all that "Everyone shook hands and cheered" stuff? Pure heresay - and impossible to prove without everyone going to court.

    I am genuinely sorry if he is having anxiety attacks - I've been there and it is terrible. But too much of this sounds like it has been drummed up by some Civil Rights type, prior to some huge claim for compensation for "Emotional Stress" or the like.

    I do agree that putting him inside was over the top, but not knowing the speed limit really does not let him off - the UK is obsessed with road signs, to the point where there are complaints that TOO MANY have been put up.

    Don't get me wrong - I HATE that our roads are monitored by speed cameras. I would much rather have traffic patrols, who are capable of common sense. But if you're so unobservant you don't spot a camera and are done for speeding as it caught you, then tough. Pay the fine and get on with your life.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob
    Don't get me wrong - I HATE that our roads are monitored by speed cameras. I would much rather have traffic patrols, who are capable of common sense. But if you're so unobservant you don't spot a camera and are done for speeding as it caught you, then tough. Pay the fine and get on with your life.
    Me too, shame it doesn't work in practice here.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob
    I hate to be the cynic here, but there are a couple of things I have to point out:...........


    Don't get me wrong - I HATE that our roads are monitored by speed cameras. I would much rather have traffic patrols, who are capable of common sense. But if you're so unobservant you don't spot a camera and are done for speeding as it caught you, then tough. Pay the fine and get on with your life.
    Dead right, methinks this tale doth smack of the "urban myth" crap.

    It may have had an element of truth but then so did Blazing Saddles....
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by scumdog
    It may have had an element of truth but then so did Blazing Saddles....
    And I missed it

    One of the all time great movies.
    I could watch it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

    But no more than that, that would be psycotic or one of those other multi-syllable words that means bad things.


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    I'm with you Bob.
    This guy's plea boils down to claimed ignorance, in that he claims he didn't know what the speed limit was. I got nailed doing 134 (ish?) during my first week in NZ. I sent a letter to the police pleading ignorance and stupidity, not knowing what the speed limit was ( ), they basically told me to buy a copy of the road code. Touché.
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  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by scumdog
    It may have had an element of truth but then so did Blazing Saddles....
    How 'bout some more beans Mr Taggart??


    Fffffffffaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrtttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!! !!


    I think you boys have had just about enough!

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    "Hey boyyyss, where're your white women at?"

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