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Daily Mail, Tuesday, June 14 2005
A mother has been banned from driving after she was caught speeding by the same camera three times in less than 30 minutes.
Jill Hunneman, 47, now has 18 points on her licence, having accumulated nine through earlier speeding incidents.
Miss Hunneman clocked up the three latest offences as she drove past officers using a hand-held camera.
Each time she was doing around 40mph in a 30mph zone.
“Everyone I've told so far has laughed. But I didn't see the camera at all,” she said yesterday. “We have a static camera at the bottom of the road but the police were parked further up in a bay with a hand-held camera. I wasn't really in a hurry. I was having DIY done in my house and your mind gets pre-occupied. But I'm not a fast driver at all.”
Miss Hunneman was caught the first time at 12.33pm last November 30 as she drove from her home to Plymouth to a nearby chemist to pick up medication for her son Ross, who has haemophilia.
She was caught again as she returned home at 12.48pm and finally at 12.57pm as she was driving to a chip shop.
Miss Hunneman, who received a six-month ban and £150 fine, accused police of concealing the mobile unit on a road already monitored by static cameras.
“They were just there to make money,” she added. The sentence was imposed after a hardship hearing at Plymouth Magistrates Court, which considered Ross's medical condition. The court decided Ross would be able to get to hospital by taxi or ambulance in an emergency.
Police say the road where Miss Hunneman was caught is an accident blackspot. She has been caught there twice before.
Sergeant Dave Dowding, of Plymouth traffic police, denied mobile units operated in hidden locations to boost revenue. “In 99 per cent of cases we go to places where there have been complaints from the public,” he said. “Handheld cameras do not generate much revenue as many of the motorists we stop will only be given warnings.”
He said police were not allowed to hide the mobile speed camera units. Concealing them would also stop them acting as a deterrent.
The length of Miss Hunneman's ban contrasts with that of a police helicopter pilot who was caught doing 118mph on the A1(M) yet was only disqualified for 21 days.
David Crisall, 38, of Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, told Huntingdon magistrates he would not be able to get to his job, which involves dealing with life-and-death situations, if he could not drive.
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