Officer Was Looking For Something To Charge Me With

Question:

On Monday, x at about 1 pm I was driving on x and I was my way home from work.

I was doing about 20 miles per hour as this is a street where traffic is quite heavy and there are lots of pedestrians that cross the street anywhere they can without using zebra crossing.

While driving, I saw a police officer on his bike and the odd thing about it was that he crossed the white line between two lanes to come close to my window.

We looked at each other, he flashed his lights so I stopped on the double yellow line and he then parked his bike behind my car.

He asked me to get out so I switched off my engine, undone the seat belt, looked in the mirror to check for cars, opened the door the joined the police officer on the pavement.

“Where you aware you were driving too close to the white line?” he said, to which I replied “I do apologise if you thought that was the case but I was driving on my lane and I hadn’t crossed the line at any time.”

This made me realise that I had annoyed him as he probably wanted to overtake, but if that was the case, I haven’t done that intentionally, I didn’t cross the line at any stage.

He then started reading me my rights which I found very strange as I thought police does that before they arrest someone, but I didn’t say anything as I was unsure about the procedure.

The way this was going, I was expecting him to handcuff me while I was still unsure what was happening.

Only then he said I was using a mobile phone and I didn’t have my belt on to which I replied: I wasn’t using a mobile phone and my seat belt was on, I only took it off when you asked me to get out of the car.

He then said: “That’s a lie you liar” to which I replied, “I am not lying so please don’t call me a liar”. He said “I will call you a liar, and I will keep repeating it until your ears drop” and that’s when I realised he was really having a bad day and he was taking it out on me.

I felt intimidated as he repeatedly kept calling me a liar and he stood very close to me but I kept defending myself and I asked him if I can have his badge number, his name, his supervisor’s name and how I could contact him.

He said his name will be on the penalty notice he was going to give me and he said I would have to find the contact details myself.

He said “you are intelligent enough to talk back to me so you must be intelligent enough to get those details.”

He then continued talking to control room and asked them for my details and I witnessed the whole conversation.

One of the things the lady from the control room said to him was that I was caught drink driving a few years ago. (more then 6)

When he finished his conversation with them, he said to me “I can see you have been done before, I am a police officer so who do you think the court will believe?” He then started writing the penalty notices and asked me to produce my driving licence within seven days.

This is a matter of principle, I cannot afford to have points on my licence and pay fines for offences I haven’t committed.

Paula Says:

If you do not accept that you were using a phone at the time alleged then you should reject the ticket. If what you have said is correct then the officer has behaved appallingly. The court will not be aware of a previous conviction that was more than 5 years old if you were fined for that offence. The conviction is spent.

It sounds as though the officer was in a bad mood and was looking for something to accuse you of. If you had a mobile phone with you, you are going to need to get the records of calls/texts made and received to help you cast a doubt on the officer’s account.