Safe Speed Forums

Magistrate and his teacher wife tried to dodge £60 speeding fine by changing number plates on car

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:13 PM on 05th December 2008

A magistrate and his teacher wife shamefully tried to dodge a £60 speeding fine by switching the number plates on the car.
'Inspired' by a website which gave advice on challenging speeding tickets, Michael and Diane Rodger sent five letters and changed the number plates on their Skoda after she was caught by a speed camera.

They were both convicted of perverting the course of justice today.

Police said Mrs Rodger would have been fined £60 and given three penalty points if the couple had admitted she was driving.
Now they have been given 26-week suspended prison sentences, 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs.

Mr Rodger has also resigned from his position as a magistrate.
Judge David Brunning, at Derby Crown Court, said the pair, of Bakersfield, Notts, had made a 'staggeringly stupid decision' when they challenged the penalty.

He said: 'Given your background and your way of life, your circumstances and your faith, it was an extraordinary decision.

'You, Mrs Rodger, faced a speeding fine of perhaps £60 and three points on your licence.'

Mr Rodger, 43, a newly-trained magistrate and a deputy church warden at Holy Trinity Church, Old Lenton, made various claims in the five letters he wrote to Nottingham Central Ticket Office.

In them he claimed the Skoda had been parked in Nottingham city centre at the time, that it's number plate might have been cloned, the digits on the plate were different and the pictures from the speed camera in London Road were not clear enough to identify the driver.

The court heard that the number plates had been changed to alter the spacing.
But the couple owned up when traffic officers visited their home, in Oakdale Road.

They recognised Mrs Rodger, 42, a lecturer in Melton, as the driver of the Skoda and her daughter as a passenger from the pictures taken on April 5.

Tom Elmer, defending Mr Rodger, said: 'It was his wife who wished to evade prosecution, but it was their joint idea as to how to go about that.'

After the case, Graham Hooper, Justices' Clerk at Nottingham Magistrates' Court, said Mr Rodger, who is also a bus driver, only completed a small number of sittings before he resigned.

Detective Constable Paul Jaycock said: 'Mr and Mrs Rodger were deliberate and dishonest in their attempts to evade a simple speeding offence.

'Mrs Rodger has since been fined and given three penalty points.'

The couple declined to comment.