Safe Speed Forums

Suits 'loom' after speed camera ruling
By Amy Fallon
22mar06
THE New South Wales Government may have to repay millions of dollars to motorists who were fined after being caught by speed cameras, following a ruling in a Sydney court today.

The NSW Supreme Court threw out an appeal by the Roads and Traffic Authority against a magistrate's decision in favour of a man who claimed there was a technical fault in a speed camera photo of his vehicle.

The man succeeded in having the traffic conviction thrown out when he challenged the speeding charge in Hornsby Local Court last August.

Magistrate Lawrence Lawson dismissed the charge after the RTA could not provide an expert witness to prove the speed camera image was not doctored.

The man's lawyer, Dennis Miralis, told Macquarie Radio's Phillip Clark that the rejection of the RTA's appeal had opened the way for a class action by thousands of motorists demanding their money back.

Mr Miralis said his client was alleged to have been doing 81km/h in a 60km/h zone on Parramatta Road at Auburn and fined $75.

In court, the RTA handed up a photo which showed his client's vehicle, the speed limit and the speed at which he was allegedly travelling.

The RTA relied on that photo to get a conviction, but Mr Miralis argued the photo was not evidence of what had actually happened, because the security indicator that was supposed to be on the camera was not shown on the photo.

The magistrate agreed, and the RTA then appealed the decision in the NSW Supreme Court.

Today, the Supreme Court found the photo was unreliable and could not be accepted as major evidence.

Mr Miralis said the decision was a "very significant win for all motorists".

He said it may mean that any motorist who had been fined and convicted on the basis of a photograph similar to his client's could have their conviction overturned.

"I think it does mean that," he told Macquarie Radio.

"The RTA was today shown in the Supreme Court not to be complying with the law themselves."

RTA lawyers had told the magistrates court they could not find an expert to prove the authenticity of mathematical algorithms published on each picture, despite being given eight weeks to compile their case.

The algorithms, known as MD5, are used as a security measure to prove the pictures have not been altered after they are taken.

Mr Miralis said today the RTA, which has already admitted that the camera software is flawed, was still admitting that photos did not have the correct code on them.

Lawyers now want to know if the camera software has existed since it was introduced in 1999, Channel 7 reported tonight.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said the Government was not "jumping to any conclusions" over the matter.

"We're going to go through the judgment, study it very carefully," Mr Iemma said.

But Opposition Leader Peter Debnam said the Government had known about the problem years ago.

"They simply didn't do their homework and fix the problem and now it could literally cost millions of dollars," he said.

Seven said the worst case scenario was that the cameras, worth approximately $150 million a year in revenue to the Government, may lead to the repayment of up to $1 billion in fines.