North Wales policeman loses speeding appeal

A North Wales police sergeant who claimed he shouldn’t have been prosecuted for driving at nearly 100mph, because of unlit signs, has lost his appeal against a speeding conviction and three-month ban.

Detective sergeant Craig Nicholas Jones, 40, had been caught doing 98mph by a PC as he drove an unmarked police VW Golf on the A55 Expressway at Colwyn Bay late at night. Caernarfon crown court heard he told the PC after being stopped on April 1 that he was "on a job” with a prisoner in the back of the car. 

Today (30th March) his barrister said he was giving the man a lift home. The back seat passenger had been arrested earlier but then freed.

The policeman’s lawyers tried to overturn the speeding conviction by arguing that Sergeant Jones shouldn’t have been prosecuted. It was an “abuse of process,” it was claimed, because police had adopted a policy of not enforcing the speed limit due to the lights not working on the 50mph signs.

Before dismissing the appeal against conviction, Recorder Geraint Walters remarked : "If he was engaged in the movement of a prisoner then certain welfare issues arise so far as the driving is concerned."

He added : "There’s no doubt he knew this stretch of road well and the speed limit." He’d passed seven reminder signs.

The judge and two magistrates refused to reduce the ban and £500 fine with £15 victims’ surcharge. But the prosecution costs were reduced to £915.

Recorder Walters said the appeal was based on intricate legal issues. "We don’t take the view they were without any merit at all," he added.

After the hearing a police spokesman said :"North Wales police are conducting an internal investigation therefore it would be inappropriate to comment at this time."