Safe Speed Forums

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4216539.stm
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'Fit up' parking warden sentenced

A parking warden who admitted altering a photo to "fit up" an innocent motorist has been ordered to do 150 hours of community service.

Gavin Moses, 27, of Duckworth Street in Bury, Greater Manchester, changed the date on a digital picture after the motorist appealed against a ticket.

The NCP worker admitted perverting the course of justice at Bolton Crown Court last September.

He was sentenced at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court on Friday.

On Thursday, a more senior parking official at NCP, Tracy Platt, was found not guilty of the same offence

The court had heard Moses altered the photograph after motorist Kevin Maguire questioned a £60 ticket he had been issued with in August 2003.

He had parked in the Market Place in Bury after checking there were no restrictions but arrived back at his car to find he had been given a ticket.

NCP had been meant to put up signs a day earlier ahead of Gallipoli Day parade but had not done so because they feared drunken revellers would take them down.

They were eventually put up after Mr Maguire, who had been taking a group of RAF cadets for a day's training, had returned to his car.

'Public concerned'

He wrote to complain and received a photo, dated 31 August, through the post showing parking signs in place.

But, the court heard, Moses had used a computer to change the photograph's date to 30 August.

Sentencing the father-of-two, Judge Jonathan Geek told Moses: "This as a case has attracted a lot of attention, from the media in particular, probably because the general public are naturally concerned about parking penalties being properly administered.

"Give the nature of this case I would imagine it has been something of a blow for public confidence in the system."
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Before we start to celebrate this corrupt [insert epithet]'s comeuppance, let's look again at what he's been convicted of... perverting the course of justice. For this he has been sentenced to 150 hours of picking up litter or painting park benches. Contrast that with David Simmonite (see this thread as well), who was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to four months inside.

Same offence, both pleaded guilty, so can someone explain to me how the one working for the authorities gets off so lightly? If anything I'd say it's worse for someone in such a position to attempt to incriminate another by falsifying evidence. Simmonite was wrong to do what he did, but a father's desire to protect a daughter is human and understandable. More than I feel can be said for NCP and the judge IMO.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

It stinks!

And, 'superviser' Tracy Platt, was "cleared of doctoring a digital photo in order to "fit up" a driver appealing against a parking fine" after "Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court heard Ms Platt's work colleagues had hatched a plot to try to make her take the blame"

See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 213297.stm

Seems the more 'senior' position held, the lesser chance of being penalised at all !
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She tried to prove parking had been suspended where Kevin Maguire had left his car, "For reasons best known to her she took on this appeal personally and decided to use any means necessary to defeat it and enlisted the help of one of her colleagues, Gavin Moses".

"She ordered him to doctor the photograph and put on the date August 30 instead of August 31."

Here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 206797.stm


How many other drivers were victims of this type of criminal activity before it was finally challenged and exposed?

How many more are criminalised daily through the same actions by unscrupulous employees ?

Hmmm. Some very muddied waters there. Still, what I find quite incredible is that Judge Geek (and I'm trying very hard to resist temptation there ) felt that official corruption is so unimportant it deserves only a slap on the wrist. Still, I suppose we shouldn't really be surprised. From Tony Blah using the M4 bus lane, down through ministerial drivers and senior police officers driving at instant ban speeds for the rest of us, all the way down to dodgy parking contractors, cowboy clampers and illegally parked talivans.
I really feel sometimes that there's one set of rules for them, and one set of rules for us.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

Glad someones mentioned president Tony's other little stealth tax......

I've lived in the centre of Manchester for 9 years. In that time i've had £5000 of damage done to my vehicles outside where i live. Now i could come to terms with that...if there wasn't a 3-man low-loader parked outside our flats (usually in a pile of broken glass!!!!!!!) waiting to tow-away anybody still there at 08:04 am!!

In October i asked an attendant why the vans parking on my street didn't get tickets when they also didn't have permits? I was told "***** street is not enforceable at present". I was shocked and asked them to radio-in for confirmation which they did. Sure enough the reply came back loud and clear that the street in question was non-enforceable! 1 week later and...................i get a ticket!! I appealed on the grounds that i'd been told the street was not an enforceable zone to which they replied that they "didn't know anything about that" and that the fine stands.

Since then i've applied for an independant appeal AND......i have 36 time-stamped photos of vans parking on the street ALL DAY LONG. Best of all i approached an attendant recently and asked them if the street was enforceable - they checked with the depot and sure enough it's still non-enforecable........I HAVE THIS FULL CONVERSATION ON MY PHONES VIDEO!!!!!!! Understandably excited i phoned the parking people to get an explanation and you all know how these scum close-ranks when they've been rumbled.....so i got nowhere. Now my best idea is to take this to the Manchester Evening News who've done a lot of work to embarrass the council over its Dickensian regulations.

Does anyone out there have another/better idea of how i can use this evidence to bring peoples attention to the fact that TONY AND HIS SCUM COHORTS HAVE GOT IT COMING (they know they have..........)?
All ideas welcome!!

The sentence certainly seems uniquely low for this offence.