A YOUNG motorist accused of driving through a north-east town at “motorway speeds” walked free from court yesterday after a blunder over the device used to snare him.
Police claimed to have clocked Kyle Forbes travelling at 75mph past homes and business premises in Peterhead’s Windmill Road.
But the 20-year-old was found not guilty of the offence after prosecutors failed to prove that the officers’ hand-held laser device had been working properly at the time.
Forbes went on trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court yesterday and denied a charge that he had driven dangerously, accelerated harshly and travelled at speeds grossly in excess of the 30mph limit.
It was alleged that he drove past several junctions, with no regard for others in the area, on March 13 last year.
Giving evidence during the trial, two police officers said they had tested the speed gun before and after their shift that night.
They said they carried out alignment tests at Mintlaw police station which showed that the machine seemed to be working.
But neither officer could remember exactly when the speed gun was last calibrated.
The court heard that, once a year, the device was sent away to be appraised by experts.
Constables James Calvert and William Wallace said they believed the gun was last calibrated in December 2012 – but they could not say for sure.
Defence agent Sam Milligan, representing Forbes, claimed the Crown had failed to prove its case.
“The best evidence I was able to glean (from the two police witnesses) was that this device ‘would have been’ calibrated at the time, and that the next due date was December, last year.
“It’s not enough to say the machine ‘would have been’ working, there has to be evidence.”
Mr Milligan added: “There were painstaking attempts to try and get this evidence today, but you cannot make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear, which I suggest is what was being attempted here.”
Sheriff Alison Stirling rejected arguments by the Crown that the officers were “pretty sure” the device would have been calibrated.
She told Forbes, of Grianan, Hardslacks, Hatton, he had been found not guilty and was free to leave.
He declined to comment as he left court.
During the trial, officers said they were parked in an unmarked car near Prunier Drive, overlooking the entrance to the Balmoor Retail Park.
The court heard the area was a known hotspot for antisocial driving and “boy racers”.
Constable Wallace, 42, said he pointed the speed gun at Forbes’s black Volkswagen Golf as it left the retail park “at speed”.
He said it was going “ridiculously fast” and recorded a reading of 75mph.
“This person was driving at motorway speeds in a built-up area,” he said.
Asked about the speed gun, he said: “If it hadn’t been calibrated, we wouldn’t have been using it.”
In 2008, the area around Windmill Road was targeted by police and firefighters as part of a campaign to spread a hard-hitting safety message to young drivers.
