Safe Speed Forums

Warrant issued for lying driver

An arrest warrant has been issued for a man who tried to blame a string of speeding offences on his ex-girlfriend in the US.

Kevin Rafferty, 50, from Worksop, Nottinghamshire, was to be sentenced on Friday for four charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

But Plymouth Crown Court was told that Rafferty, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, was in Hong Kong.

Rafferty, a project manager for a door firm, will be arrested on his return.

On three of the occasions he was arrested, Rafferty said former girlfriend Laurie Morgenstern, from Texas, who had visited him in the UK for 10 days in 2003, was behind the wheel of his VW Passat company car.

The car was first spotted travelling at 41mph in a 30mph limit in Braintree, Essex, on 16 October, 2003.

Rafferty claimed Ms Morgenstern was driving, and when no reply was received from her in the USA to official correspondence about the matter no further action was taken against him.

Fourth offence

He again claimed Ms Morgenstern was driving when the Passat was recorded doing 89mph in a 70mph limit on the M6 in Cumbria on 27 October the same year.

When the Passat was recorded at 39mph in a 30mph zone in Middlecroft, Derbyshire in August 2004, he claimed an unnamed visitor from abroad was the driver.

The fourth speeding offence was on 16 January this year when the Passat was clocked at 63mph in a 50mph limit on the M5 near Burlescombe, Devon.

Rafferty again claimed Ms Morgenstern was driving, and when she was written to in the USA she replied that she had not been in UK since August, 2003, adding: "I have never driven his car."

Rafferty again claimed Ms Morgenstern was driving, and when she was written to in the USA she replied that she had not been in UK since August, 2003, adding: "I have never driven his car."