Caught In A Speed Trap

Tom Riall, 49, has been found guilty of driving his Volvo at over 102mph in a 70mph zone on the A14 in Suffolk. Sudbury magistrates banned him from driving for six months and fined him £300 plus costs.

Just another ordinary day in court, you might think.

But Mr Riall, from Berkshire's idyllic Ufton Nervet, just happens to earn £150,000pa as chief executive of Serco Government Division, which operates 5,000 of the UK's 8,000 Gatso speed cameras - you know, the ones which catch you speeding!

So it should be no surprise that you can almost smell the delicious irony dripping through the numerous reports - here is a leading businessman who preached one thing and did the exact opposite.

Mr Riall pleaded guilty and issued a formal apology, but this wasn't enough for road safety charity Brake with whom he promoted the 'Safe Drive Stay Alive' road safety campaign last year.

The campaign charity summed up a nation's thoughts as it released a statement, "He has obviously shown a disregard for the law that his company is instrumental in upholding."

Perhaps other motorists should be glad he doesn't have a penchant for really fast cars!

In a perverse twist Mr Riall pleaded extreme hardship as he asked for a driving ban not to be imposed, claiming it would cost £30,000 to be chauffeured around the country in the course of his business.

You can watch Mr Riall's public statement here.

Meanwhile Howard Thomas is more cynical about the use of cameras for enforcement and on a slightly different tangent Pete Moring discusses a potentially infallible technological form of intervention to prevent such double standards - the black box.

Oranjepan asks:
Is the punishment a taste of his own medicine and a case of poetic justice, or is it a minor diversion for this locally-based high-flier?