Ticket-writer by day. Ticket-stopper by night? -- From the Top Gear website - The police say you were doing 115mph. You know your asthmatic old 1.1-litre Ford Fiasco struggles to hit 90mph down a one-in-three hill with a tailwind. But the court date is approaching and you face losing your licence. What do you do? Who would you turn to? We'd be straight on the blower to traffic accident investigator Doug Bolton. An ex-copper, Doug knows all about speeding tickets - he's written thousands during his long career. Nowadays he specialises in getting incorrect speeding tickets thrown out of court. "In no way am I there to get someone off a speeding fine just because they've been caught," he insists, "But if they say 'I wasn't doing that speed' then it's different; or even if they don't think they were doing it, I'll look at it for them. "My aim is to see that the police have done their job right. Because there are guidelines that they must follow and, if they don't, then they're not playing the game right." It all began a couple of years ago: "A young woman rang me and said she didn't agree with the speed she'd been done at. She was driving a 1.4 Astra and had been told she was doing 124mph. 'You're joking!' I told her, 'You should put that in the advert when you sell it!'" To put this unlikely hot rod's performance to the test, Doug teamed up with Datron, the company that makes the speed testing gear that Top Gear uses to check car makers' claimed figures. Doug took the Astra over to Bruntingthorpe test track in Leicestershire and thrashed it... "I put my foot to the floor and got no more than 103mph out of it," says Doug, "I did a report for the court and the case was dropped." Since then, half a dozen similar cases have been thrown out on the strength of his evidence. The cost of having Doug max your car is £700, including track hire, attendence by an expert from Datron and equipment. Having Doug appear in court as an expert witness is paid for by the court. If you win, you can apply for the costs incurred to be covered; of course, winning's not guaranteed. An old-school copper who believes the application of common sense makes for safer roads than a million cameras, Doug's expertise spans the wide range of speed-trap technology, from VASCAR to pro-laser and radar guns. Do roadside cameras ever get it wrong? "There are faults with them and the way different forces use them," he says, "but invariably if it's a camera, you've got to put your hands up, I'm afraid." Hand-held equipment is more subject to human error. Doug is reluctant to guess at how common false speeding allegations are, but still finds it 'astonishing' that police officers can get it so wrong. "Over 100mph is almost certainly a ban," says Doug, "which can have a great effect on your future insurance and maybe your job. But, to policemen, it's just an everyday part of the job. They don't realize what the repercussions can be. I presume this is happening to a lot of people and they just don't know where to turn." They do now.
This is a dream job post yes I cringe at the thought of a court getting proof that our cars can do 200+ mph
