lol police love it when you tell them how to do their job. Reaaaaally love it.
Lawyers like Nick Freeman have made a small fortune from officers who do not know their jobs or are too idle or sloppy to carry it out effectively. Motoring cases have been thrown out of court hundreds of times not by his supreme advocacy but because some officer has failed to follow procedure and left a door open that his meticulous reading and knowledge has discovered. He freely admits it is 90% finding what errors have been made and using them to his clients' advantage.
EDIT: I have just spotted a prime example in today's Telegraph, an obviously costly for the police to prosecute case dismissed due to late presentation of the NIP:
David Beckham has swerved a speeding fine after his lawyer, dubbed "Mr Loophole", successfully argued that despite driving too fast, the notice of prosecution was defective.
The former England football captain had been caught driving a Bentley at 59mph in a 40mph zone, and although the speed was not contested, the fact that the notice arrived late meant that Beckham could not be convicted.
Summing up, his lawyer Nick Freeman said: “He is accepting he is driving, he is accepting the speed. That isn’t in any way in dispute. It may cause some disquiet but that is a matter for Parliament. It is a statutory requirement and if the law needs to be changed then so be it.”
The celebrity lawyer had earlier failed in a bid to get the case completely thrown out on the technicality when District Judge Barbara Barnes ruled there was a case to answer.
But having heard the evidence, she ruled: “In this particular case and on the evidence I have heard, what I find is that it is more likely than not that the notice was not served on the registered keeper of the vehicle in time.”
The incident took place on January 23 this year, just after 5:30pm on the A40 in Paddington, not far from the 43-year-old’s Holland Park home, Wimbledon Magistrates court heard.
Mr Freeman, who has previously represented Sir Alex Ferguson, Colin Montgomerie and Ranulph Fiennes has gained a reputation as ‘Mr Loophole’ after fine combing cases and finding errors by the state.
Instances of successful cases include noticing spelling mistakes on names, late serving of notices and his client needing to speed in order to use the toilet (Sir Alex Ferguson).
The case against Beckham, which lasted more than five hours, came down to proving when the notice of intended prosecution was sent and received.
The law states that an NIP must be received within 14 days of the offence being committed. Beckham’s lawyer said that it arrived on February 7, which was 15 days after the offence and was therefore invalid.
Three prosecution witnesses were called from the Metropolitan Police, who worked in IT, the post room and the camera processing services team.
Between them, they could not successfully argue beyond reasonable doubt that the letter would have been sent in time to be received in time.
It was noted that on February, 3487 NIPs were sent out.
The defence called two witnesses, a legal assistant and the woman in charge of the post room at Bentley’s Crewe offices who have over four decades’ work at the car company between them.
Colette Hollies, the legal assistant, said she recalled opening the notice of intended prosecution on February 7 because it was the same car and the same driver as an NIP received the week before.
This is to say that Beckham was contacted about being the driver of a speeding vehicle in an incident one day before the one in court today. It is unknown what the outcome of that case was.
“It isn’t every day that you get a Bentley being driven by David Beckham which prima facie is being driven too fast,” said Mr Freeman.
Freeman argued that the Bentley post system was efficient and that the first letter arrived on time, but the second letter arrived late and that was not the fault of Bentley or his client.
it is probably far quicker, more efficient and less of a waste of everyone's time for them to write it themselves in general.
