'Shambles' as 2115 speeders let off due to Lancashire police admin error (From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen)

'Shambles' as 2115 speeders let off due to Lancashire police admin error

9:00am Wednesday 24th June 2009

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MORE than 2,000 speeding tickets have been cancelled after a ‘total shambles’ was discovered in a police department.

One member of Lancashire police staff has received a verbal warning, while another has been moved to a different role, following an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into alleged failings in the force’s Central Process Unit.

It found that paperwork in the Blackburn department was not completed properly for speeding fines, leaving them open to challenge.

As a result of the findings, 2,115 tickets, worth £126,900, have had to be cancelled as they were deemed unsafe.

The inquiry focussed on forms which proved speeding notices had been posted to drivers.

Naseem Malik, IPCC Commissioner for the North West, said: “The recognised procedures for the production of these particular forms within the Central Process Unit would appear to have descended into a total shambles and, as a result, forms which were required were either missing or incorrect. This was totally unacceptable.

“I appreciate that the workload of the Central Process Unit is huge. However that cannot be used as an excuse for a failure to follow standard procedures.

"There appears to have been a total lack of understanding about the importance of the document.

“This failure, whether it was down to incompetence, misunderstanding or pressures of works resulted in a large number of tickets having to be withdrawn.

”However, it is pleasing to see that, once the failings were identified, Lancashire Constabulary took fast and robust action to tighten up this particular process to ensure its integrity going forward.”

Nigel Evans, Ribble Valley MP, said the incident showed how important it was to be fair and transparent with the public.

He said: “I am sure there will now be 2,100 very happy motorists after this decision.

"But a speeding ticket can be a very serious thing if it means losing your licence and the police must make sure that they are absolutely certain in their prosecutions.

“Everyone makes errors but the procedures must be in place to make sure something on this scale does not happen again.”

It costs around £2.5m each year to run the Lancashire Road Safety Project, which dishes out speeding fines.

There are currently 290 speed cameras in Lancashire.

Last July, a speed camera technician from the unit was sacked for putting ‘quantity before quality’ and causing 545 drivers to be wrongly prosecuted.

His actions forced Lancashire Constabulary to cancel 545 tickets, rescind 1,500 penalty points and £35,000 in fines.

In January last year 59 motorists were also given refunds after paying for £80 speed awareness courses even though they had not been breaking the limit because of wrongly-set-up speed cameras.

The latest findings from the IPCC show that between July 2006 to October 2007 about 60 per cent of the proof of postage forms produced by the central process unit were found to be missing or wrong.

The investigation focussed on the production of forms which were designed to prove that speeding tickets had been posted to the registered keepers of the vehicles.

Should a member of the public challenge the ticket by claiming they had not received the Notice of Intended Prosecution or Section 172 notice a court would require the form proving that the documents had been posted.

During the period that was being investigated 318 days worth of certificates should be in existence. However 98 days worth of certificates were found to be missing and a further 94 days worth were incorrect.

The staff member given an warning had a charge of failing to follow procedures proven against them at a disciplinary hearing and one of integrity and performance of duties was not proven.

Both charges were not proven against the other worker, but concerns were raised about their capability and they were moved to a different job.

A police spokesman said: “There have been lessons learnt from this investigation and the constabulary will seek to progress areas of development so as to provide the highest quality of service to the communities of Lancashire.”

A spokesman for the RAC Foundation said: “It is good to hear that the mistakes have been discovered and now rectified.

"Let’s hope that all those who avoided a speeding ticket have learned their lesson despite having to pay a fine.”

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