Safe Speed Forums

Motorists face a new army of car snoopers
Motorists face being clamped and fined at the roadside by an army of uniformed Government inspectors, it has emerged.

Drivers whose vehicles are judged unroadworthy, have overly tinted windows, lack a valid tax disc or MoT will be subject to being pulled over by examiners from the Vehicle Operator and Services Agency, if new proposals are accepted.

It is planned to give the 560 VOSA inspectors - who wear black uniforms, peaked hats and yellow jackets - powers previously held only by the police to issue fixed penalty fines.

And their workload, which currently focuses on commercial vehicles, will extend to private motorists.

Under the proposals, if they find that a car has already been banned from the road - or believe the driver is likely to ignore the fixed penalty fine - they will have powers to immobilise the vehicle.

But they will not be able to issue speeding tickets and penalty points.

The proposals were outlined yesterday in a consultation document which the Department of Transport said was aimed mainly at cracking down on lorries from abroad which flout UK laws with impunity. But the proposals have fuelled concern about the growing numbers of uniformed civilian agencies being given powers that were once the preserve of the police.

Edmund King of the RAC Foundation said: 'Our major worry is this growing army of uniformed bureaucrats.

"We now have decriminalised parking with private-sector parking wardens. On the motorways the Highways Agency have been given police- style powers to direct traffic. Now we have VOSA issuing fixed penalties.

"We are not against targeting rogue lorries. But vulnerable motorists such as lone women are being flagged down by uniformed people who are not police.

"This dilution of powers makes it difficult for drivers to tell if they should or shouldn't stop when flagged down. We think VOSA's powers to issue fixed penalty notices should be restricted only to lorries, not cars."

The consultation document notes: "The Road Safety Act will amend the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 (RTOA) to give VOSA vehicle examiners equivalent powers to those already vested in the police to issue fixed penalty notices."

The Department of Transport said the changes would speed up enforcement and free up the courts. It added: "The current fixed penalty scheme administered by the police has resulted in considerable savings in time."

VOSA estimates that of the 13,500 cases it pursued through the courts in 2005, around 90 per cent could have been dealt with by fixed penalty.

A Transport Department spokesman said: "VOSA already have the power to stop non-commercial drivers, although their work is aimed at commercial vehicles so this rarely occurs.

"Currently if a VOSA examiner does stop a non- commercial vehicle, the examiner can only enforce by taking the offence to court. Under the new measures the examiner would be able to issue a fixed penalty notice."

Foreign lorry drivers will also be hit with on-the-spot fines to stop them flouting UK traffic laws.

Roads Minister Stephen Ladyman said: "This is about making our roads safer and creating a level playing field across Europe."

In another move, ministers are planning a graduated system of penalty points for speeders, with fewer points for drivers just over the limit, but more for those well over it.

... or believe the driver is likely to ignore the fixed penalty fine ...

Currently if a VOSA examiner does stop a non- commercial vehicle, the examiner can only enforce by taking the offence to court. Under the new measures the examiner would be able to issue a fixed penalty notice.

"This dilution of powers makes it difficult for drivers to tell if they should or shouldn't stop when flagged down. We think VOSA's powers to issue fixed penalty notices should be restricted only to lorries, not cars."

The Department of Transport said the changes would speed up enforcement and free up the courts. It added: "The current fixed penalty scheme administered by the police has resulted in considerable savings in time."

why not propose to abolish the courts completely and run for the next election on that proposal? If the courts are such a waste of everyone's time as they would have us think?

We couldn't have that though could we, where would people employed in such positions get their income from?

We couldn't have that though could we, where would people employed in such positions get their income from?

We couldn't have that though could we, where would people employed in such positions get their income from?

only a Court of Law can ever issue a fine or Forfeiture, AFTER Conviction, simple as and always has been

why do Folks put up with this S**t?

it' no wonder some people flip and do a Michael Ryan is it?

The Department of Transport said the changes would speed up enforcement...

Errr...they would be employed by the higways agency or vosa. How else can unemployment be kept down ?
So, what happened to only having to stop for a uniformed police officer ?
And how long until the first robbery (or worse) by some crook in a vosa uniform ?

Trial over £53m cash heist starts

Seven men and one woman are in the dock at the Old Bailey
The trial of eight people accused of involvement in the UK's biggest cash robbery has begun at the Old Bailey.
Seven men and one woman face charges in relation to the £53m raid on the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, last February.

Seven people deny conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to kidnap, and conspiracy to possess firearms. One person denies handling stolen money.

Prosecution barrister Sir John Nutting QC has outlined the case to the jury.

The trial is expected to last up to five months.

He was interrogated about the depot and about its security arrangements by men armed with guns

Sir John Nutting

The gang used what appeared to be a police car and theatrical disguises to waylay Colin Dixon, the manager of the Securitas depot, stopping his car as he drove home, Sir John said.

"Mr Dixon was then taken at gunpoint to an isolated farm where he was interrogated about the depot and about its security arrangements by men armed with guns," he said.

He told jurors "a cruel ruse" was used to take Mr Dixon's wife, Lynn, and their young child from their Herne Bay home.

He said "policemen" told them Mr Dixon was in hospital after a car crash and offered to take them there.

'Held separately'

"Distracted by anxiety", Mrs Dixon left for her husband's bedside "with those whom she believed to be sympathetic and kindly policemen", Sir John said.

But when they were in the car, guns were produced, he said.

"For much of the time, they were held separately, and were ignorant of each other's fate."

Car dealer John Fowler, 58, of Elderden Farm, Chart Hill Road, Staplehurst, Kent; car salesman Stuart Royle, 48, of Allen Street, Maidstone, Kent; unemployed Jetmir Bucpapa, 26, of Hadlow Road, Tonbridge, Kent; and roofer Lea Rusha, 35, of Lambersart Close, Southborough, Kent, all deny conspiracy to rob.

Hairdresser Michelle Louise Hogg, 32, of Brinklow Crescent, Woolwich, south-east London; garage owner Roger Coutts, 30, of The Green, Welling, south-east London and Ermir Hysenaj, 27, a Post Office worker of New Road, Crowborough, East Sussex, also deny conspiracy to rob.

The seven have also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to kidnap Securitas employee Colin Dixon, his wife and son, and conspiracy to possess firearms.

Signwriter Keith Borer, 53, of Hempstead Lane, Maidstone, Kent, denies handling stolen money.