Lancashire speed fines bungle: trio face sack
5:01pm Tuesday 20th May 2008
THREE police workers face a disciplinary hearing after drivers were wrongly hit with speeding fines totalling £35,000.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) announced the action against a trio of Blackburn-based employees after an eight-month probe concluded there were "clear concerns" over their conduct.
The investigation was launched in October after it was revealed 545 speeding convictions were unsafe.
It meant fines totalling £35,000 were repaid, 1,500 penalty points were taken back off licences, and 2,115 tickets were torn up.
East Lancashire MPs have joined a motoring group in questioning wheth-er the findings would make motorists become even more disillusioned' with speed cameras.
However, the county's police auth-ority and Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety bosses have defended the scheme.
Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "People want the certainty that speed cameras are being used properly. The last thing people want to think is that they are getting tickets after passing speed cameras at the right speed.
"The police need to ensure that these things do not happen again."
Hyndburn MP Greg Pope added: "I am sceptical about speed cameras and I think most motorists are. To maintain public confidence in them, we have to be completely sure that they are accurate and a lot of people don't think that."
The IPCC probe looked into the conduct of five workers, all based at Lancashire police's central process unit in Blackburn. Bosses said one of the five was responsible for operating a mobile camera based in Blackpool and Penwortham, near Preston. The other four staff processed paperwork to be handed to courts, they said.
Two of the four administration employees were cleared of any wrongdoing, but the other two and the camera operator must face a police disciplinary hearing, where they could be sacked, bosses said.
Lancashire Constabulary has refused to comment until the hearing, expected to take place next month, is complete. Lancashire Police Authority chairman, Coun Malcolm Doherty, who also sits on Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "I think what people should know is that the problems that occurred have now been properly dealt with. People's confid-ence in speed cameras should be remedied by that."
John Davies, manager of the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, which operates the county's speed cameras, said: "The cameras work perfectly well and we will continue to use them."
Naseem Malik, the North West's IPCC commissioner, said: "Once the discip-linary panels have been held, the IPCC will issue further details about the findings of the investigations."