Intranetics Motoring News Service

Jail for father caught taking responsibility for son's speeding ticket

3rd July 2007 | BACK     PRINT

Motorists have been reminded about the dangers of illegally swapping speed camera points after a man was sent to jail for lying about a conviction on behalf of his son.

Robert Logue, a 77-year-old pensioner, has been sentenced to a three-month jail term by Lincoln Crown Court after the judge was told that he had wrongly taken the blame for a speeding offence committed on October 7th 2007, reports the Times.

In actual fact, the court discovered that Mr Logue's son Robert was the driver at the time of the incident.

However, since he already had points on his licence, the son was facing a ban from driving if he admitted that he had been behind the wheel when the gatso camera caught him travelling at 51 mph in a 40 mph zone in Lincolnshire.

And his father was persuaded to come forward and falsely claim that he was the motorist flashed by the gatso.

In court, Jeremy Robson, lawyer for the Logue family, admitted that the father had made a "very serious mistake" and was "ashamed of his behaviour".

Meanwhile, the son also expressed his regret to the presiding judge.

"Dad took the blame. I'm not proud of that because he's my father and I know I got him into trouble," he said.

Nevertheless, judge Michael Heath told the son that it was a "serious offence" to allow somebody else to falsely take responsibility for a motoring offence.

"It strikes at the fabric of justice," he added. "The message must go out that people who do this and who say they don't think they are doing anything seriously wrong will not get away with it."

In other judicial news that may be of interest to motorists, a lawsuit from speeding ticket rebels Idris Francis and Gerard O'Halloran was recently turned down by the European Court of Human Rights.

Both drivers had argued that a rule forcing them to confirm or deny whether they were behind the wheel of a car flashed by a gatso camera was a violation of their human rights, since they should be permitted to remain silent.

However, 15 of the 17 judges in Strasbourg were not convinced by their argument and decided the police did have the right to obtain positive confirmation of the driver's identity.

Commenting on the decision, Mr Francis said that he was "shocked and amazed", before adding that "the fight for freedom goes on".

However, the Department for Transport issued a statement indicating that it welcomed the decision.

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