KEY POINTS:
A challenge to the legality of a $130 speeding ticket - which could have had wide implications for the police - has failed.
Justice Graham Panckhurst ruled out the appeal by Lawrence John Hill in the High Court at Christchurch and ordered him to pay half a day's legal costs to the Crown Solicitor's Office which defended the appeal.
Hill, of Belfast, is a senior lecturer at Lincoln University and holds a judicial warrant in the Disputes Tribunal. He defended himself at the hearing before justices of the peace in Oamaru, and at the appeal yesterday.
The police say he was clocked on a radar speeding at 121km/h between Omarama and Twizel a year ago. He was issued with an infringement notice imposing a fine and 35 demerit points.
But he said the speed detection training certificate produced by the police officer was not valid. He said the officer had been trained in 1994, and the police's code of practice would have required his skills to be retested in 2001 when a new certificate was issued.
He said the certificate was "strictly inaccurate", but Justice Panckhurst disagreed, saying it was really a paper challenge.
A hundred years ago courts might have paid attention to arguments related to the date on a piece of paper, "but today we look at the substance of things".
Having been trained in 1994, the officer had continued to work on the equipment and did not need retraining as successive models - the Hawk, the Eagle, and the Stalker - came out, because they were so similar.
He ruled that the officer had not needed to be tested afresh for his new certificate in 2001.
Hill asked for leniency when Crown prosecutor Zannah Johnston asked for costs.
"I hope you don't think this was a frivolous attempt to get off a $130 speeding ticket," Hill told the judge.
He said he had seen something amiss, and believed he had legitimate grounds to raise the matter.
High Court staff said the costs awarded by Justice Panckhurst amounted to $130.
- NZPA
