what will happen?

[animalkit]

a friend of mine has been called to court in a few weeks with charges of driving without due care and attention however the state ment given has the wrong acr in it the officer says my friend was driving a ford ka but infact he was driving a clio. the registration number he give is correct. i was in the car wen the insident happened-he overtook a car goin 30 in 1 40 limit when overtaking he sped up to 55 mph so not to be off side for to long he pulled back in then slowed back down to 40 then the police car overtook the car and pulled him over this was all done on a 1 mile perfectly straight piece of road with no-one coming towards him at all. however in his statement the police man says he overtook on a corner, he did not also the corner before and after this straight have dashed lines on them so we would not have crossed a solid line to overtake. my friend is understandably concerned as he needs to drive for his job but with a poor statement from the policeman like this what will happen?

[waremark]

Better places to ask a question like this would be the Pistonheads forum called 'Speed Plod and the Law' or the Traffic Answers forum. You will also find lots of old threads in those places which may help:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/forum.asp?h=0&f=10

http://www.traffic-answers.co.uk/forum/

In my completely inexpert opinion it would take a very good lawyer to make a court realise that a police officer was lying: although if the facts are as you state them it could be done. (My brother was once acquitted when two policemen in a car were saying he had done something he hadn't, but then my brother was a practising barrister and he managed to get the two policemen to contradict one another). There is no legal exemption from the speed limit to allow you to overtake over the speed limit, however safely, so I would have expected a speeding charge in addition to 'without due care'. If there has not been a speeding charge then obviously there was not enough evidence of speeding. I do not know if the mistake about the type of car could make any difference but I expect not.

[James]

If there is an error with the car description but thr reg is correct is is unlikely to be enough to throw the case out. All the officer need to is hold his hands up to a slight error in the paperwork side of things.

As for the dispute between the officers events and your friends, if your friend feels that the evidence is incorrect then he should plead not guilty and challenge the version of events. However, it is likely the officer's evidence will be co-oberrated and backed up by some sort of evidential reading, either by way of vascar, video reference or other source.

I think your friend will end up being found guilty from what you have said.

[ScoobyChris]

What did the policeman say at the side of the road? Did it agree with his statement? What kind of policeman was it (TrafPol?) and is there any video evidence of the overtake?

Chris

[vonhosen]

If they stopped you at the time, then presumably your friend being identified as the driver concerned & the vehicle they stopped at the time, isn't really in question. It wouldn't matter that they thought it one small car when in fact it was another brand of small car.
What matters is they thought the driving fell below the standard expected & you don't. You are expected to adhere to speed limits at all times including for overtakes.

[Red Herring]

I'm surprised that they have gone for a careless driving if there is just a straightforward case of speeding to answer. Just how dodgy was the overtake?

[7db]

Might be evidentially light on the speeding charge - might not have got a constant distance follow in, not operated Vascar, not had his mate on board etc. Furthermore he might not have been concerned by the speed but the manner of driving.

Does seem odd, as the speeding charge could have been dealt with by a fixed penalty at the side of the road and the careless will mean court time.

The careless charge suggests that the Policeman thought he did something that you wouldn't expect a careful and competent driver to do. We have no way of telling what that might be. We have no way of telling if he did or not.

The magistrates will listen to both sides and decide whether your friend probably did drive carelessly. If he didn't think that he didn't, he should put his side of events carefully and clearly.

I reckon 9 times out of 10 people I see on the roads are driving carelessly.

[Angus]

Was your friend stopped by a traffic officer or an ordinary policeman? If it wasn't a traffic car, the evidence of speeding may not be available, whereas due care & attention can be subjective.

The bottom line is, the cost of defending himself may exceed any penalty imposed, and pleading not guilty when he is then found guilty may increase the penalty.

[Why_Aye]

Where was this, exactly? A flashearth location would be a perfect demonstration! (Then, we could see this 'corner'.)

How would the version of events, as according to your friend (rather than the police or witnesses) be described in court?

You say that the speed was up to "55 mph so not to be off side for to long", yet "this was all done on a 1 mile perfectly straight piece of road with no-one coming towards him at all". There was no reason, therefore, to exceed the speed limit as there would have been plenty of time to safely complete the overtake within the speed limit - as it would have been obvious that there was no oncoming traffic or traffic waiting to emerge from another road. After all, what is legal: exceeding the speed limit, or; overtaking?

Had your friend overtaken within the speed limit (perfectly legal, given the circumstances you describe), then the police probably wouldn't have seen anything unsafe.

Also, I have to ask, why did your friend break the speed limit if driving is so important (for a livelihood )?

Sorry that this reply is a little negative, but given the circumstances of the overtake, I am thinking that the results are not unexpected nor entirely inappropriate.