Speeding motorists could be making an expensive mistake if they contest their fines.

• Admin note: I am posting this article simply because I was appalled by the insinuation that those who get tickets and contest them are wasting their time and causing problems with the system — bogging down courts, taking officers off-duty to testify, etc. Don’t let this attitude keep YOU from contesting your ticket. Then again, don’t get duped by those who offer a ‘guarantee’. Do your OWN research. Defend YOURSELF! Don’t roll over and just TAKE IT! Anyway, read the following and interpret it as you wish. Just wanted to let you know that I disagree.

Durham Constabulary Officers from Durham Police’s road unit say they have seen a huge increase in the number of drivers who are taking their appeals to court.Between March 2006 and March 2007, only five cases were heard at magistrates’ courts in the county, but since then there have been 20.

Each time the appeal has been unsuccessful, with hundreds of hours taken up in court time.

Police say that although they are exercising a legal right, they suspect the drivers have an unrealistic belief their effort to overturn the fine will succeed, a hope fostered by numerous websites which offer letters or forms which promise to get fines quashed.

They also believe a programme broadcast on ITV last year, which questioned the validity of certain speed detection devices, including the LTI 20/20 used by forces including Durham, may have also encouraged them.

In a case heard recently by magistrates in Consett, a man from West Auckland contested a police reading of his car travelling at 71mph in a 50mph stretch of the A690 at West Rainton.

Police said the lengthy appeal process meant the case took 16 months to be heard.

He claimed the equipment used in the police safety camera van was faulty, but the magistrates threw out his appeal.

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