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A scientist escaped a speeding fine after a mobile phone system he devised showed that a police speed camera clocked him at 12mph more than he was going.
The new tracking system, likened to an aircraft’s black box, could now be used to challenge the controversial issue of speed cameras.Dr Phillip Tann was hauled before magistrates after police claimed he was doing 42mph in a 30mph limit but records from his own invention convinced prosecutors he was doing less than the permitted 30mph.
The case has now been discontinued and the 45-year-old technology firm boss said the ruling could open the floodgates for other hapless motorists accused of speeding.
Dr Phillip Tann with his tracking system, pictured outside his offices in Birtley, GatesheadCentral to the accuracy of the system is that it can measure data over distances of less than half a metre compared to traditional GPS devices which work on distances of around five metres.
After a number of pre-trial hearings the Crown Prosecution Service has now told his solicitor, Peter Thubron, that the case is being discontinued and he does not have to attend a planned trial on October 18 at Sunderland Magistrates Court.
Dr Tann, who has been working on the global positioning device for two years was driving through Sunderland collecting road data for the system when he was clocked by a police mobile speed camera.
Knowing his speed was an exact 29.177196mph he did not give it a second thought until he received a letter and fine from Northumbria Police.
Knowing he could prove his speed through the tracking system he has designed he challenged it through the courts.
The new system, likened to an aircraft’s black box, could be used to challenge the accuracy of speed camerasThe system, which can be installed on a mobile phone, records the location and speed of the handset on a computer database.
The design has already received government funding, with an NStar proof of concept award.
Dr Tann, whose business Autopoietic Systems (Tann Ltd) is based in Birtley, Gateshead, said: “When I received the fine, I checked the database.”
“The system I was testing is more accurate than anything else on the market. It said I was only doing 29.177196mph at that time.”
Dr Tann, from South Shields, then turned up to a magistrates hearing with a CD containing his evidence and pleaded not guilty.
He said: “My solicitor, Peter Thubron, stood up and told them the exact speed I was travelling at that time.”
“The Crown Prosecution Service requested to view the system and has now agreed that the Autopoietic System was more accurate than the police laser gun.”
“I knew when I received the fine I couldn’t have been exceeding the limit because I’d seen the van with the camera. So I was surprised to receive a fine. “The cameras used are not 100 per cent accurate, but my system is.”
“It can track a GPS phone within half a metre of where it is, whereas devices currently on the market can, at best, only track a phone within five metres.”
“In the past people have had to rely on the accuracy of the police cameras and they can be subject to error but this information can be downloaded as used as proof.”
Dr Tann will also be releasing a product this December as an aid to people suffering from such conditions as Alzheimer’s Disease and any parents who want to know the location of their child.
Dr Tann added, “With this accuracy we can provide many new services, including sending an alarm if a phone travels outside an area or at a speed greater than 15mph.”
Bloody bent coppers and dodgy equipment :evil:
This guy is great and just goes to show just how much money is possibly reaped in with the pretence that they have real evidence of you speeding. :shock:
The falseness of the speeding system has been shown time and time again and relies on most people not knowing the speed they were going at any point in time and just paying up regardless
A point that most people are also not aware of tho is that its actually illegal to make ANY levy against a person without a court appearance having occured and that includes anything from parking tickets, on the spot fines, speeding tickets and quite possibly credit card and bank charges
The law that makes such levies illegal was agreed when the crown passed power to the state in return for financial maintenance and outranks any other laws past that contradict it
A pensioner from the midlands tested this over some parking tickets and the court had to throw the case out, he has since accrued other tickets which were also thrown out when he used the statute in court
To remove that loophole ALL laws formed since the formation of governmental power would have to be rescinded and the agreement between crown and state anolled and then reformulated and rattified at which point the laws given power by that document would all have to be sanctioned again with respect to the newer version of the contract and any prosecution made under the older contract would be nullified as a result
That aside tho, this story has my spider sense tingling :shock:
It just seems TOO convenient really
On the one hand we have a company with a new product to sell, VERY convenient that really
But, its a product that has had GOVERNMENT funding, and more than that
Its a product thats almost an identical rip off of the system the government wanted to install in every car for the pay by the mile system so many people objected to VERY convenient and even uses the same satelite system for the GPS tracking
Now call me a cynic, but a story like this would make loads of people WANT to install the system where loads DIDNT want to when the government said they were going to
So lets jump forward, this story and other potentially staged ones just like it COULD make masses of people freely choose to install it, deals and incentives with manufacturers could see it being fitted as standard in new cars and THEN, once a decent number of people have the system the government would simply have to pass a new law that gives them access to the data in real time meaning they would have what they wanted to begin with, but via stealth rather than brute vote losing force
I’m sorry, but this just smacks of being far TOO much of a coincidence that someone doing random testing of this system not only just happened to drive past a speed trap but also just happened to be within the limit AND was zapped at exceeding it by the speed trap
Far far far FAAAAAAAAR too convenient in my opinion
Good points to ponder over there Uber :wink:
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