Saturday 11 October 2008

Shameless

Robert Southgate, a 47-year-old police constable from Hendon, was fined £120 for driving in a bus lane in The Hyde on 28 December last year. He successfully appealed on the grounds that the wording on the penalty charge notice did not comply with the law. Mr Southgate's notice was declared invalid because it stated that he had to pay the charge within 28 days " beginning with the date that this notice was delivered", rather than within 28 days "beginning with the date of this notice", as the law stipulates.

So on this piddling technicality (which erred on the side of generosity towards the offender) he gets off. But this is simply the verdict of a parking adjudicator, not a legal judgement.

Notice that no one is at all concerned that a policeman using his private car unlawfully drives in a bus lane.