This creased me up! I was looking for something else but honestly, how could ANYONE in the court have kept a straight face when witnesses come up with cobblers like this>
"Mr Forsyth had told the police that Mr Borrowdale revved the engine and accelerated to more than 100 mph, forcing the car on to two wheels... "
I wonder if he'd be one of the first to complain about "speeding through the village" and offer to forward registration numbers of (apparently) offending vehicles to the Speedfinder General?
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/se/1.89634"Driver cleared after police admit 120mph claim is wrong
Last updated 19:41, Thursday, 17 April 2008
A MAN accused of dangerous driving after supposedly crashing his car at 120mph has been cleared after a police officer admitted the car could not have gone that fast.
Bus driver Jason Borrowdale, 34, of King Street, Workington, was on trial at Carlisle Crown Court in a case based entirely upon the speed he was alleged to have driven.
“The main factor that made his driving dangerous was his speed,” Alison Whalley, prosecuting, told the jury after describing how Mr Borrowdale had smashed into a wall after losing control of his MG while driving at up to 120mph on the old A66 road between Great Clifton and Stainburn, Workington.
But the trial collapsed on Friday when a police witness admitted that Borrowdale’s car could not have managed 120mph.
He said he would have been killed or seriously injured if he had hit the wall at anything like that speed.
Mr Borrowdale was formally found not guilty of dangerous driving after the judge, Recorder Peter Davies, ordered the jury to acquit him.
Earlier the jury heard allegations that the accident happened after Mr Borrowdale had taken his girlfriend Kelly Carruthers home to Green Garth, Great Clifton, and was returning with her brother Phillip Forsyth to Workington.
Mr Forsyth had told the police that Mr Borrowdale revved the engine and accelerated to more than 100 mph, forcing the car on to two wheels.
Then, he claimed, the car flew off the ground altogether, with Mr Borrowdale losing control and crashing into the wall in Stainburn Road. The court heard that Mr Borrowdale told police he had been going at no more than 50mph when he had lost control after being dazzled by the lights of an oncoming car."