Driver fixed false plates to avoid speeding tickets

Motorist condemned for 'trying to evade justice'

A CHEEKY motorist thought he had the perfect scheme for avoiding speeding tickets – fixing false number plates.

But the scam came unstuck and landed Neil Andrew Barnes in the dock in front of Newbury magistrates on Thursday, June 4.

Felicity Lineham, prosecuting, said officers who stopped the 67-year-old’s Peugot 206 on the A4 Bath Road in Theale noticed that the front and rear plates did not match.

She added: “He said he had fitted them to prevent him from getting speeding tickets.

“A search of his car unearthed one set of correct plates in his boot.

“A check on the front plates showed they were linked to a ‘making off without payment’ on January 14 at a Sainsbury’s store.”

After being arrested and taken to the police station, Mr Barnes, who lives in Waltham Court, Mill Road, Goring, said he had found the false front plates but insisted he could not remember when or where.

Ms Lineham went on: “The rear false plates had come from a vehicle he used to own.”

Mr Barnes, who has no previous convictions, admitted commiting fraud by deliberately fitting false registration plates with intent to evade prosecution for motoring offences on February 24 this year.

Nigel Maidstone, defending, said: “This is someone who has seen fit to affix false number plates but I would stress that the police were quite thorough in their subsequent investigation and this is the only thing they have charged him with – just this one offence.”

He highlighted his client’s hitherto good character and early guilty plea.

Presiding magistrate Tony Ayres told Mr Barnes: “We don’t take kindly to people who try to evade the justice system, which is what you’ve been doing.”

Mr Barnes was fined £100 and ordered to pay £85 costs plus a statutory surcharge of £20.