Sunday, March 23, 2008

Multanova speed cameras

On Friday night's edition of Channel 9's ACA there was rehash of a story about people challenging the accuracy of radar speed cameras. In Western Australia there has not been a single successful challenge to this device. The police could not afford to have someone challenge and beat their cash-cow.

My late uncle, who was a retired Police Superintendent, however did get off a Multanova radar camera charge.

He was nabbed on a stretch of road near where he lived in Wanneroo. He rang me asking me to visit him with a decent camera. He didn't tell me what he was about, but took me to a spot on the road and told me to take some photos showing the road and also overhead power lines. When we returned to his place he told me that he had been booked and showed me an instruction manual for that model Multanova camera and on page three in bold print was a warning not to use the camera near power lines. He had pulled a few strings in at Police HQ and got a copy of the instruction manual.

He played a few games with the police and refused to admit it was him driving the car. The local sergeant visited him a couple of times, but couldn't talk him into fessing up and paying the fine. Unc had a reputation for not losing a case when he was a cop and eventually they dropped the charges believing that he did have something up his sleeve to bring to court. He was quite wealthy and could well have paid the fine with a fraction of his weekly pension. He loved that little exercise.

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