Law professor offers help after speeding charge dodged

File photo / NZ Herald

A leading New Zealand law professor is offering police free evidence seminars after a botched prosecution saw a Wellington lawyer dodge a speeding charge.

Porirua barrister and solicitor Chris Ellis had a $35 speeding ticket thrown out by justices of the peace at Porirua District Court yesterday, the Dominion Post reported.

The paper said the case could set a legal precedent because Mr Ellis successfully argued a technicality that meant the police evidence was inadmissible after they enlarged a speed camera image of his number plate without showing other details like speed, location, time and date.

However, Dr Chris Gallavin, dean of law at University of Canterbury, said it was not a loophole and rejected any precedent being set by the case.

Instead, he said it simply highlighted an example of the police failing to properly conduct a prosecution.

Now he is offering New Zealand Police free seminars across the country "to explain how they can avoid this ever happening again".

"First of all, Justice of the Peace court is not a court of precedence," Dr Gallavin said.

"And second of all, the only precedence you could establish is that the police will have to do their job properly."

It is within police rights to enlarge a speed camera image to get a clearer view of a number plate.

But the problem came in yesterday's case because the police have "divorced any reference from the zoomed picture to the main picture", Dr Gallavin said. The prosecution has then failed to prove the merits of the image.

Dr Gallavin, however, says it could have easily been proven - by calling the person who zoomed in as a witness to give evidence explaining the process they went through to ensure the court would be satisfied it is a genuine snapshot.

"The evidence wasn't admissible because they couldn't prove that the snapshot wasn't from the wider image," said Dr Gallavin.

"And therefore, in a case like this, there is no other evidence to prove that he was actually speeding."

A police spokesperson said they were considering the decision and had nothing to add at this stage.