Speed camera lies, says inventor

Oct 9 2007 by Jule Wilson, The Journal

THE brains behind a new mobile phone system has claimed the device got him off a speeding charge after it showed he was doing 12mph less than police claimed.

Dr Phillip Tann, 45, of Harton Lane, South Shields, appeared before magistrates in Sunderland after police said he had been doing 42mph in a 30mph limit.

But he says his global positioning system showed he was doing less than 30.

His prosecution has now been discontinued after the police officer who had handled the speed recording equipment in Dr Tann’s case retired from Northumbria Police and was unwilling to attend court.

But Dr Tann says the accuracy of his technology cannot be denied after having “proved” the police camera wrong. The businessman, who began developing the new tracking system three years ago, said the device was not dissimilar to an aircraft’s black box.

And he said that after his victory, it could now be used to challenge speed cameras, among several other potential uses.

His claims have been adopted by one organisation campaigning for speed cameras to be scrapped.

Paul Smith, founder of SafeSpeed.org.uk, said in the light of Dr Tann’s case: “We demand that the Home Office withdraws laser speed meters immediately.

“We know they make mistakes; I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes during independent testing, and I’m quite sure the Home Office knows too.

“Millions of motorists are being convicted by these devices with evidence that can never be beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s a tragedy for justice and a tragedy for road safety. Quite apart from the errors with the equipment, speed cameras have not made our roads safer and we believe they must be scrapped.” But a spokesman for Northumbria’s Safer Roads Initiative, which operates Northumbria Police speed cameras, said it was impossible for Dr Tann’s measurement to be correct.

Jeremy Forsberg said: “Dr Tann was travelling at 42mph when the camera caught him. That is a fact. GPS works as the crow flies and we use laser equipment with an accuracy level of a millisecond. We also back it up with video recording to half-a-second accuracy.”

Dr Tann – whose company Autopoietic Systems (Tann Ltd) is at Birtley, Gateshead – is now in talks with several major investors with a view to marketing the technology, most likely for use in monitoring the whereabouts of children or patients with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

He said the system could measure data over distances of less than half a metre, compared with traditional GPS devices which work on distances of about 10 metres. But Mr Forsberg insisted Dr Tann’s evidence simply suggested an average speed over a certain distance, rather than an accurate reading of the speed at which he had driven past the camera.