A Speed Camera Cheat Who Made a Boast too Far

Daily Mail, Monday July 11 th 2005
By Daily Mail Reporter

A merchant banker who was caught speeding on the motorway thought he had beaten the system after persuading his girlfriend to admit the offence.

But Stephen Quas made the mistake of bragging about his ruse on a website. Police monitoring the site spotted is boast – and prosecuted both him and his girlfriend Isabelle Fortot for perverting the course of justice.

Both were given community service orders at Carlisle Crown Court, where Judge Barbara Forester warned the couple, both in their thirties, that they were lucky not to be going to prison.

Quas, from Clapham, South London, was caught by a speed camera on the M6, going too fast in his BMW as he headed for his second home in Cockermouth, Cumbria. But the camera's view of the driver was obscured so, to avoid having points put on his licence, he asked Miss Fortot to say she was at the wheel.

He wrote of his exploits on the drivers' forum website pepipoo.com, which describes itself as ‘helping the motorist to get justice.'

Quas wrote: “The photo doesn't show my face so I guess my girlfriend, who rarely drives, will have just got her first points.” Quas was tracked down by the Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership, which manages the four mobile cameras in the county and is preparing to install a further eight fixed devices in the coming months.

Mobile cameras carry a powerful telephoto lens which can capture the face of a driver even at high speed.

Safety camera manager Steve Callaghan said: “We always warn someone if they try to claim they weren't the driver and they have the chance to come and see the photos. It's a growing concern – yesterday six people nominated people of the wrong sex as the offending driver but we give them the chance to change their minds. We know this is going on and one of the things we now do is monitor websites and other driver's resources to see what is going on.”

Drivers' groups warned motorists that they are committing a serious offence if they try to cheat by asking family members to take their penalty points.

Andrew Howard, the head of the AA Motoring Trust, said: “People have gone to jail for less than this – the fact that this happened is a warning to drivers if they try this.”