A judge with a bit of sense!!!

[EC Unique]

BBC

13 October 2010 Speeding driver is fined a penny A man prosecuted for driving at 45mph in a 30mph zone has been fined 1p at a court in County Londonderry.

Kenneth Kane, 52, from Toberkeigh Road, Bushmills, was stopped by police on the Tobermore Road, Maghera, on 11 May.

He was offered a fixed penalty notice but failed to take it up in time.

Magherafelt District Judge Desmond Perry fined Mr Kane 1p and "with much regret" put three penalty points on his licence. However, he said the case "should never have been prosecuted".

Mr Kane had a completely clear previous record and no penalty points on his driving licence.

The judge asked the prosecuting lawyer to look at the case again, but she said she was unable to refer it back for fixed penalty as it it had now reached court.

Judge Perry said: "I wasn't even thinking of a fixed penalty. There must be something that can be done."

However, the Public Prosecution Service refused any alternative.

"This is a remarkable state of affairs," said Judge Perry.

"Young people are being cautioned for assaults, and others for thefts. Here is a man of 52; of good character with no previous and he is prosecuted for being 15mph over the limit.

"Where is the discretion?"

[Banana Man]

let's be frank, he was over the limit, the law is the law, I got fined and 3 points for 59 in a 40 zone but i had to suck it up despite no previous convictions, it should be the same rule for everyone

[nrico2006]

Why the leniency?

Not to familiar with the penalties etc, but if you are caught speeding do you always receive points and a fine or can you just get points for certain boundaries?  In this case, 45 in a 30 is a a good bit over (percentage wise) and I don't see why the man shouldn't get the fine and points.  Personally, if every motorist that was breaking the speed limit was tagged with the points then there would not be any of us without them.  I don't rally through Villages or Towns but have you ever sat at 30MPH going through some of them?  Its only when you do that you realise that yourself and most other people never go that slow, and to be honest it is too slow. 

[Hoof Hearted]

Kenny Kane from Bushmills says it all
Would a Mickey O'Neill from Crossmaglen got off lightly ? Hardly

[EC Unique]

"Young people are being cautioned for assaults, and others for thefts. Here is a man of 52; of good character with no previous and he is prosecuted for being 15mph over the limit.

"Where is the discretion?"

It was this bit that I thought was a bit of sense.

[fitzroyalty]

I think cops should have a bit of gumption, doesn't take a genius to work out which road users pose the biggest threat. For cases like this a warning should be enough. I know someone who was meant to go to court for speeding on the A1 between Newry and B'bridge, not too much over the speed limit, they ended up getting off with it and rightfully so. Its the young male drivers who need to have the book thrown at them.

[leenie]

so the adds on t.v showing the chances of stopping at 30 are more likely than 40mph are wrong?

should it not be that a 52yr old man should have more sense and have abided to the law?

[pintsofguinness]

The judge is a bollocks - yer man broke the speed limit and then didn't accept the fixed penalty in time, he should have had the book threw at him for wasting the courts/prosecutors time That encourages everyone to go to court now.

Some discretion? My arse, the line has to be drawn somewhere and I thought they let you go something like 7mph over the limit but after that you'll be done. 

I think cops should have a bit of gumption, doesn't take a genius to work out which road users pose the biggest threat. For cases like this a warning should be enough. I know someone who was meant to go to court for speeding on the A1 between Newry and B'bridge, not too much over the speed limit, they ended up getting off with it and rightfully so. Its the young male drivers who need to have the book thrown at them.

and everyone else should get off then?

[The Real Laoislad]

How does EC make out the Judge has sense?
Yer man broke the speed limit and the law why should he get away with it?
Load of bollix

[David McKeown]

Having been in court recently and then read the BBC reports of the same case I would imagine there is a lot more to this case than meets the eye.  I would imagine that there could be any number of mitigating factors in this case that havent been reported, a district judge would deal with a large number of speeding cases on a daily basis and the fact he has chosen a lenient penalty in this case suggests that there was something unusual about it

[Dougal Maguire]

Fair play to the Judge, he was 100% correct. I was done some time for doing 52 in a 40 on a dual carriageway in a place where you'd never expect there to be a speed limit. I asked the cop why they were carrying out a speed check on that particular section of road. He said it was because there was evidence that vehicles were speeding. I told him that wasn't justification enough and asked him to tell me the number of injury accidents there had been on the section of road which were attributable to excessive speed. He said that he didn't know and it wasn't a factor that was taken into consideration when they decided to set up the speed trap. Its the same on the road between Camlough and Newry, they do a speed check on a Saturday morning at around 10am so they can catch parents taking kids to football etc. Easy pickings and good for a few quid in fines. However they're rarely about at 2 or 3 in the morning when boy racers are coming home from discos and when accidents generally happen.

[ardmhachaabu]

I agree with pints

[EC Unique]

"Young people are being cautioned for assaults, and others for thefts. Here is a man of 52; of good character with no previous and he is prosecuted for being 15mph over the limit.

"Where is the discretion?"

It was this bit that I thought was a bit of sense.

You lot are missing my point. Read above!!!

Police out as revenue earners instead of proper police work.

[sammymaguire]

I agree with pints

I agree with POG too!! 

[Lawrence of Knockbride]

I agree with pints

I agree with POG too!! 

So do I and I can't quite come to terms with it.
I reckon the MOD has taken over POG's account cos he didn't have bollocks all *******'d out. Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks.