It Was On Amber!

Question:

My names are x and I have a pending court case due to take place on x July x. The particulars of the charge are “Failing to comply with red traffic signal”. Two Policemen have both given evidence against me in this regard. However as far as am concerned I did not fail to comply and by the time I drove through the signal was on amber.

I had a passenger in the vehicle and as soon I sighted him as my witness to my version of the event one of the Policeman went to and told him to get other means home because I was going to be arrested for being drunk and abusive of course which was not true because I have never tested alcohol all my life and as a matter of fact I was not arrested nor did both policemen mention this in their statement.

He (my passenger) straight away jumped in a black cab (London Taxi) and the following day he rang my office to express his anger about me.

The question is, should I plead guilty due to the fact that my witness was turned against me and that its my word against that of the two Policemen or not guilty because the tactic used by the police to deter my witness.

Graham Says:

I am sorry that you find yourself in this situation.

You are going to struggle to cast a doubt on the evidence of two police officer’s if they have ganged up against you.

It is still an offence to drive through on amber and if you admit that in court you will still be convicted I’m afraid. The only difference is that you can defend an allegation of going through on amber if you can show that it was not safe to stop. The burden is on you to show this and if you did not raise it at the time you will struggle.

If you are sure it was not safe to stop then you maybe able to get a witness summons to get your passenger to come to court but if he complained about you then he is unlikely to back you up in court.

Have you got any points on your licence already? If so, how many? At the moment I think you should be pleading guilty and trying to minimise the fines and court costs.