Why bother with speed limit laws?

[Tony Raven]

A COMPUTER engineer has escaped a driving ban after being caught
speeding at up to 120mph.

Cambridge magistrates fined 23-year-old Jonathan Mulley £400 but decided
not to disqualify him after he admitted exceeding the 70mph limit on the
A11 at Great Abington by up to 50mph.

The driver, from Arlesey, Bedfordshire, was followed by police in his
Honda Civic on the northbound carriageway on the morning of July 7 and
clocked at between 100 and 120mph, the court was told.

Sandeep Kainth, representing the mobile computer worker who drives
30,000 miles a year, argued that he would lose his job and be unable to
pay his mortgage if he was banned.

In addition to the fine, Mulley was ordered to pay court costs of £35
and had six points placed on his licence.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2007/01/15/ecb3f26b-688f-4e40-b597-73a08d6ad5ea.lpf

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 

[Alistair Gunn]

Tony Raven twisted the electrons to say:
> Sandeep Kainth, representing the mobile computer worker who drives
> 30,000 miles a year, argued that he would lose his job and be unable to
> pay his mortgage if he was banned.

<shakes head> It's comments like that which make me serious consider
becoming a magistrate ... If only so I could ask in return "Did it occur
to you before you broke the speed limit that it could cost you your job
and home, or was it only after you where caught that this occured to
you?".
--
These opinions might not even be mine ...
Let alone connected with my employer ...

 

[John B]

Tony Raven wrote:

> A COMPUTER engineer has escaped a driving ban after being caught
> speeding at up to 120mph.
>
> <snip>

> In addition to the fine, Mulley was ordered to pay court costs of £35
> and had six points placed on his licence.
> http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2007/01/15/ecb3f26b-688f-4e40-b597-73a08d6ad5ea.lpf

IMO, , unless there is a direct cycling connection, this kind of post would do better on
uk.tosspot where it could balance the speed apologists rather than on a cycling group.

John B

 

[Squashme]

Tony Raven wrote:
> A COMPUTER engineer has escaped a driving ban after being caught
> speeding at up to 120mph.
>
> Cambridge magistrates fined 23-year-old Jonathan Mulley £400 but decided
> not to disqualify him after he admitted exceeding the 70mph limit on the
> A11 at Great Abington by up to 50mph.
>
> The driver, from Arlesey, Bedfordshire, was followed by police in his
> Honda Civic on the northbound carriageway on the morning of July 7 and
> clocked at between 100 and 120mph, the court was told.
>

Arlesey was once the site of a lunatic asylum:-
http://www.institutions.org.uk/asylums/england/BDF/three_counties_asylum.htm

My mum used regularly to tell the child me: "You'll send me to Arlesey".

 

[Buck]

On 01/17/2007 00:05:46 "Squashme" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Tony Raven wrote:

>> A COMPUTER engineer has escaped a driving ban after being caught speeding
>> at up to 120mph.

>> Cambridge magistrates fined 23-year-old Jonathan Mulley £400 but decided
>> not to disqualify him after he admitted exceeding the 70mph limit on the
>> A11 at Great Abington by up to 50mph.

>> The driver, from Arlesey, Bedfordshire, was followed by police in his
>> Honda Civic on the northbound carriageway on the morning of July 7 and
>> clocked at between 100 and 120mph, the court was told.

> Arlesey was once the site of a lunatic asylum:-
> http://www.institutions.org.uk/asylums/england/BDF/three_counties_asylum-
> .htm

> My mum used regularly to tell the child me: "You'll send me to Arlesey".

Worst thing they ever did, getting rid of the asylums, not that they didn't have problems.

--

Buck

Give a little person a little power and create a big problem.

http://www.catrike.co.uk

 

[Pyromancer]

Alistair Gunn wrote:

> Tony Raven twisted the electrons to say:
> > Sandeep Kainth, representing the mobile computer worker who drives
> > 30,000 miles a year, argued that he would lose his job and be unable to
> > pay his mortgage if he was banned.
>
> <shakes head> It's comments like that which make me serious consider
> becoming a magistrate ... If only so I could ask in return "Did it occur
> to you before you broke the speed limit that it could cost you your job
> and home, or was it only after you where caught that this occured to
> you?".

Google concocted a very interesting set of links to go with this
thread:

Sponsored Links
Close to a Speeding Ban?
Reduce the cost of living without a
licence from £5.99 a month.
www.drivingbanassistance.co.uk

Speed Camera Got You Eh?
Get Out Of Speeding Tickets & Fines
With No Points! 100% Guaranteed
www.UK-Driving-Secrets.com

Got A Speeding Fine?
Not Anymore, Quash Speeding Tickets
Avoid Fines & Points Latest Version
www.BeatTheFine.com

As a cyclist, I find the existance of a business sector devoted to
enabling people to get away with anti-social driving habits, and
providing insurance assistance to mitigate away the costs that a
regular driver would otherwise suffer from as a result of a ban, *very*
worrying. Interesting that the car shown on the insurance site is a
BMW - possibly the worst-driven vehicle on the road?

 

[Pyromancer]

Alistair Gunn wrote:

> Tony Raven twisted the electrons to say:
> > Sandeep Kainth, representing the mobile computer worker who drives
> > 30,000 miles a year, argued that he would lose his job and be unable to
> > pay his mortgage if he was banned.
>
> <shakes head> It's comments like that which make me serious consider
> becoming a magistrate ... If only so I could ask in return "Did it occur
> to you before you broke the speed limit that it could cost you your job
> and home, or was it only after you where caught that this occured to
> you?".

Google concocted a very interesting set of links to go with this
thread:

Sponsored Links
Close to a Speeding Ban?
Reduce the cost of living without a
licence from £5.99 a month.
www.drivingbanassistance.co.uk

Speed Camera Got You Eh?
Get Out Of Speeding Tickets & Fines
With No Points! 100% Guaranteed
www.UK-Driving-Secrets.com

Got A Speeding Fine?
Not Anymore, Quash Speeding Tickets
Avoid Fines & Points Latest Version
www.BeatTheFine.com

As a cyclist, I find the existance of a business sector devoted to
enabling people to get away with anti-social driving habits, and
providing insurance assistance to mitigate away the costs that a
regular driver would otherwise suffer from as a result of a ban, *very*
worrying. Interesting that the car shown on the insurance site is a
BMW - possibly the worst-driven vehicle on the road?

 

[citizen142]

Sandeep Kainth, representing the mobile computer worker who drives
30,000 miles a year, argued that he would lose his job and be unable
to
pay his mortgage if he was banned.

Sandeep Kainth, representing the mobile computer worker who drives
30,000 miles a year, argued that he would lose his job and be unable
to
pay his mortgage if he sent to prison for killing an innocent road
user/cyclist/motor cyclist/horse rider/eccentic skakeborder or anyone
else with a legal right to use the highway and that his right to speed
over-rides anyone elses.
This country has gone nuts.

 

[Jim Higson]

Pyromancer wrote:

> As a cyclist, I find the existance of a business sector devoted to
> enabling people to get away with anti-social driving habits,

Given the keywords in your post, search engine ranking bots will probably
give those services greater priority now!

I'd take a good guess that the engines trawl usenet for links/mentions of
websites.

 

[scott135]

>From what I have read in the postings, and not from any other evidence
heard, we can assume that whilst the Defendant was likely to be
disqualified from driving, he argued a case of "Exceptional Hardship"
where he had to prove to the Court that he would suffer very
exceptional hardship (e.g; loss of employment and thereby loss of home,
etc) if he lost his licence for any period of time. Clearly, the Bench
accepted that argument and placed the obligatory six points on his
licence with a significant fine - related to his earnings. (If they
were feeling in a particularly good frame of mind they might have asked
him if he had any annual leave due, and, if so, could have disqualified
him for that length of time.)

It's worth noting that when a defendant uses the argument of
"Exceptional Hardship" it is recorded on the file and they may not use
the same argument again under similar circumstances. So if he accrues
another 6 points during the next three years, he will be disqualified
for a minimum period of 6 months under the totting-up procedure and
won't be able to use the Exceptional Hardship argument or the potential
loss of his employment in mitigation.

Lucky lad this time around I reckon.

On Jan 16, 9:29 pm, Tony Raven <[email protected]> wrote:
> A COMPUTER engineer has escaped a driving ban after being caught
> speeding at up to 120mph.
>
> Cambridge magistrates fined 23-year-old Jonathan Mulley £400 but decided
> not to disqualify him after he admitted exceeding the 70mph limit on the
> A11 at Great Abington by up to 50mph.
>
> The driver, from Arlesey, Bedfordshire, was followed by police in his
> Honda Civic on the northbound carriageway on the morning of July 7 and
> clocked at between 100 and 120mph, the court was told.
>
> Sandeep Kainth, representing the mobile computer worker who drives
> 30,000 miles a year, argued that he would lose his job and be unable to
> pay his mortgage if he was banned.
>
> In addition to the fine, Mulley was ordered to pay court costs of £35
> and had six points placed on his licence.http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2007/01/15/ecb3f26b-688f-4e...
>
> --
> Tony
>
> "...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
> wildly inaccurate..."
> Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 

[Geraint Jones]

David Damerell <[email protected]> wrote:
| The insurance seems like a fine idea to me; if people have that insurance,
| they will be less likely to continue driving while disqualified. While it
| mitigates those costs, it does so only at an average cost to the driver
| which is greater still, assuming the insurers can assess the odds
| competently.

For what other crimes ought it be possible to
insure against the consequences of sentence?

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>,
scott135 ('[email protected]') wrote:

>>From what I have read in the postings, and not from any other evidence
> heard, we can assume that whilst the Defendant was likely to be
> disqualified from driving, he argued a case of "Exceptional Hardship"
> where he had to prove to the Court that he would suffer very
> exceptional hardship (e.g; loss of employment and thereby loss of home,
> etc) if he lost his licence for any period of time. Clearly, the Bench
> accepted that argument and placed the obligatory six points on his
> licence with a significant fine - related to his earnings.

£400 is not a 'significant fine'. It's a piddling little fine for anyone
who is in employment. It's probably less than the difference six points is
going to make to his insurance premium.

To be honest I really don't feel that 'exceptional hardship' should
even /be/ a defence in this sort of case - if he couldn't afford to lose
his licence, he shouldn't have been speeding.

> Lucky lad this time around I reckon.

You're so right!

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Life would be much easier if I had the source code.

 

[David Damerell]

Quoting Geraint Jones <[email protected]>:
>David Damerell <[email protected]> wrote:
>>The insurance seems like a fine idea to me; if people have that insurance,
>>they will be less likely to continue driving while disqualified. While it
>>mitigates those costs, it does so only at an average cost to the driver
>>which is greater still, assuming the insurers can assess the odds
>>competently.
>For what other crimes ought it be possible to
>insure against the consequences of sentence?

Well... in what cases would it provide a social benefit?

In this case it provides an obvious one. When people are disqualified from
driving, the thing we really want is not additional punishment (not that
it might not be a good thing) but for them to stop driving; and people
driving while disqualified are a regular problem. This insurance
encourages them to stop driving.
--
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