Telford driver left 'shocked' after getting speeding ticket for parked car

Dave Copeland smelled a rat when he was sent a ticket ordering him to pay a £100 fine and informing him he faced three points on his licence.

He demanded an investigation, which revealed he had been blamed for someone else's speeding.

In fact, Dave was actually out of his car and inside a takeaway picking up his supper when he was accused of carrying out the offence.

The real offender was a motorcyclist – but when the camera flashed it only picked up the numberplate of Dave's car, which was parked nearby.

The camera in Station Road, Ketley, is situated close to the Chinese takeaway, where Dave enjoys the odd curry and sweet and sour.

He always parks in a handy lay-by and says he has never been wrongly accused of speeding before.

The 35-year-old electrician said he was confused when he received the ticket on Thursday. He knew that he was innocent and contacted the Safer Road Partnership, which had issued the fine on behalf of West Mercia Police.

He asked staff there to get to the bottom of what happened, telling them he had only popped to the Chinese for a takeaway.

"I could not believe it," he said. "When I opened the letter to find it was a speeding ticket I was shocked.

"I live in Ketley and I am always on the road, so I know there is a camera at that spot, so I knew something had to be wrong.

"The ticket was for October 30, and I happened to remember I was at the Chinese takeaway opposite where the camera is.

"I called the Safer Road Partnership straightaway, and they were very helpful.

"I've not seen the picture, but the people I spoke to all said it was not me who should have got the fine.

"Apparently in the picture you can clearly see a motorbike on the road and then my car parked in the lay-by – not moving.

"They couldn't understand why the person looking at the photo thought it was me, and sent me the fine. But they were apologetic and cancelled the fine straight away."

It's easier than you'd think to get out of paying a ticket.

Parking tickets are most often overturned, but if you are caught speeding it is also worth checking the facts.

If you have the technology, GPS data can overturn the data from a speeding camera or speed gun.

And check the time and place – just in case you have been a victim of mistaken identity.

According to recent research, more than a quarter of people who complain about being handed a parking ticket have their fines cancelled.

Of the 170,000 tickets contested over a 12-month period from 2013 to 2014, 46,000 of those were successfully withdrawn, cancelling fines worth £3.2m.

Mr Copeland claims he found a similar story on the internet where a woman was given a speeding ticket when she was asleep.

"After I got the letter I did some research and found a story about a woman who was given a fine for speeding, despite her vehicle being parked," he said. "It appears that she parked in a lay-by near her home and at about 10pm or 11pm another car drove past.

"Like me, the ticket was sent to her rather than the moving vehicle.

"It just makes me wonder how many times this has actually happened and it's worth making people aware."

Anna Higgins, spokeswoman for the Safer Roads Partnership said: "Our enforcement equipment is rigorously tested and calibrated. When the speed camera was triggered on this occasion, there were two vehicles in the picture taken by the camera.

"Due to human error, the wrong vehicle registration was processed and the ticket was therefore sent out to the wrong motorist. Errors like this are extremely rare and – as this person found out – are corrected as soon as we are made aware of them."

It is not the first time that mistakes have wrongly led to innocent motorists being given a ticket. Nationally, there are a number of examples of drivers receiving demands even though they were well within the speed limit – or in some cases not in the vicinity at all.

Mistakes can include clocking drivers at the wrong speed. One Hampshire man was recently accused of doing 50mph in a 30mph zone, when the limit on the road was actually 40mph.

And in the Thames Valley, a man received a ticket for a speeding offence detected by a speed camera that was in a different county to where he was at the time.

The AA says the number of mistakes has soared because in many cases they are reliant on automated systems. Some motorists challenge the findings, but others assume they are guilty and pay. A faulty fine may even have cost some drivers their licence under the 'totting-up' procedure.

Those who would like to take their challenge to court are deterred by far higher penalties magistrates can impose if the motorist loses the case, the AA claims.

It also blames the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency at Swansea. The AA believes at least 20 per cent of data held by the DVLA is incorrect, meaning in some cases the wrong motorist is sent a ticket.

An AA spokesman said: "There is a danger that faulty notices bring the entire system into serious disrepute."