Motoring News

Motorists to pay for violent crime victims

Filed under: Motoring Laws — Alan @ 6:36 am

Drivers who are faced fine for small motoring offences will now have a £15 surcharge tax added onto their fine that will be contributed to aid groups for victims of violent crime and domestic violence.

The new tax was hinted at in a Parliamentary answer before Christmas. As a result of its approval anyone who receives a fixed penalty ticket will have the surcharge automatically tacked on.

The extra penalty will be assessed on simple motoring offences such as running a stop sign, speeding, parking tickets, and even if a vehicle is driven with dirty windows.

Ministers stated that they hope to affix the new tax on every type of fixed penalty in the future. At the moment, only those who are found guilty in court will face the new surcharge.

Justice Minister Claire Ward stated in the Parliamentary reply that it is now government policy that offenders will need to help victim’s services as part of their penalty for breaking the law. Thus, new provisions have been made that add the surcharge onto criminal convictions, penalty notices, and minor road traffic offences.

Ward also stated that in the future the ministers intend to add the surcharge to other fines as soon as it becomes possible. She also stated that the proceeds will be used to provide funding for many organizations that help victims of crime.

The new surcharge will increase the rates of many basic fines such as the cost of a penalty notice for disorder from £80 to £95 and the cost of speeding fines from £60 to £75.

Speeding lying expert caught out in lie

Filed under: Motoring Laws — Alan @ 4:50 am

Bruce Burgess got a little egg on his face today after he was given 180 hours of community service and a suspended sentence for lying regarding a speeding issue to the police.  The punch line is the fact that Burgess is a polygraph expert who offers website tests that are supposed to help establish innocence.

Burgess is from Surrey and was caught by a CCTV speeding over the 30mph limit on August 31^st of 2009 but instead of admitting that he was speeding he told police that he was not driving the vehicle when it went through the intersection.  Later, he pled guilty to lying and received sentencing at a Portsmouth crown court.

As a result of his action he now has a disqualified license, a £250 fine for speeding, three points on his license, and costs that total up to £1,250.

An officer with the Hampshire safety camera partnership, Mick Gear, stated that although it turned into a criminal matter, Burgess offence simply started out as a speeding ticket.  He continued to say that it would have been easy to deal with the speeding offence instead of facing a possible prison sentence so his advice to others is not to try it.

Burgess has worked with many famous TV programs over the years including Jerry Springer, Jeremy Kyle, and Trisha.  He also provides his services to private customers and states that he has helped prove many people innocent over the years of untrue allegations that were made against them.