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Bungling motorist who blew up dummy speed camera jailed
Railway worker is locked up for four months after destroying roadside device to evade driving ban
A driver was jailed for four months yesterday for blowing up a roadside camera to evade a speeding ban only to find out it was a dummy device.
Craig Moore blew up the camera to destroy evidence of his speeding – but it was only a fake camera which cannot be used to prosecute drivers.
Railway worker Moore, 28, used an explosive substance taken from his workplace to destroy the traffic-calming Watchman camera, Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court heard yesterday.
The explosion caused £11,700 damage to the camera, which had flashed him exceeding the speed limit in the Hyde area of the city last August.
Moore admitted a charge of damaging property at a hearing last month.
Moore, who worked for Vital Rail Ltd, was in a work vehicle with a colleague when he was flashed. He feared losing his job and being unable to support his family if caught for speeding, the court heard.
Andrew Bailey, defending, said Moore knew that adding extra speeding points to the 10 he already had on his driving licence would mean he would lose it, and with it his livelihood.
Mr Bailey said: "All that sort of thing was flashing through his mind when he committed the offence.
"But the defendant accepts that he has created a mountain out of a molehill by behaving stupidly."
On August 14, 2005, Moore, of Grampian Way in Thorne, Doncaster, drove 40 miles back to the camera on Mottram Road in Greater Manchester with a quantity of the chemically-volatile substance Thermite.
The camera captured Moore's van moments before the detonation, and he was arrested after being traced through his registration plate.
Moore has previous convictions for driving while disqualified, having no insurance and car theft.
His defence told the court he wished to pay for the damage done to the camera, at a rate of £200 per month. But Judge Timothy Mort chose to give him a custodial sentence.
Passing sentence, Judge Mort said: "Up to 1996 you were no stranger to the criminal courts before you changed your life completely to become a model citizen.
"You've settled down and become a family man with a skilled job."
But he added: "When one gets involved in such situations and resorts to the level you did of the extreme step of destroying a camera it has to be a custodial sentence – as punishment and as a deterrent, so that no-one else in your position tries that again."
Tameside Metropolitan Council last night confirmed that Moore destroyed a Watchman camera, which is used to deter drivers from speeding by flashing them rather than catching them.
A council spokesman said: "You don't incur any fines or points if one of these flashes at you, so he couldn't have lost his licence anyway."
The Watchmans have smaller boxes than the usual Gatso speed cameras, do not emit such a bright flash, and also contain CCTV equipment which can be used to monitor street activity.
Ms Martin added: "It was the CCTV that caught him coming back to the camera to blow it up.
"The recording equipment is in the base of the camera, unlike the Gatsos where it's all in the box, so he didn't manage to destroy it."
His actions have been condemned by anti-speeding groups and police.
Jools Townsend of Brake, the national road safety charity, said: "Maliciously damaging roadside safety equipment is putting lives at risk in our communities.
"Speed cameras play an essential role in reducing and controlling speed on our roads and are proven to reduce deaths and serious injury from road crashes."
However, Paul Smith, of the Safe Speed campaign said Moore's actions were likely to be seen as heroic in some quarters.
He said: "Some motorists will regard Craig Moore as a hero or a freedom fighter. The speed camera programme is now a runaway gravy train, and it must be stopped."
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