Alert over £300 gadget that lets drivers block speed cameras
A BMW driver used a £300 laser device he bought on the internet to ‘ cloak’ his car from speed cameras.
Father-of-two Ben Kitto was handed a two-month suspended prison sentence after the ruse was discovered.
However Judge Andrew Stubbs QC warned that other motorists caught using the legal-to-buy blockers faced being sent straight to jail. He spoke out after being told there were four pending prosecutions for using the device – sold as a ‘parking sensor’ – in North Yorkshire alone.
The gadgets can be programmed to intercept beams from police cameras and send one back on the same frequency. This makes it impossible for the car’s speed to be recorded.
Kitto, a national sales manager for a telecoms company, was fined £1,000 plus £1,200 court costs. He was also ordered to pay the cost of the police investigation.
Kitto thought he could speed ‘with impunity’ by installing the jammer that rendered his £54,000 vehicle ‘invisible’ to speed cameras. But police in North Yorkshire became suspicious when they recorded error codes when Kitto drove past mobile speed cameras. They realised their camera beams were being scrambled by a tiny laser hidden under Kitto’s number plate.
An investigation traced the black BMW coupe to 41-year-old Kitto’s address in Scarborough, the following month.
Officers found that the car had been fitted with a £300 Laser Elite Jammer, which can be legally bought, sold and fitted as a ‘parking sensor’ but is tuned to the same wavelength as police speed traps.
Kitto’s coupe already had built-in parking sensors so there was only one reason for the extra gadget.
The laser blocker also lit up a warning light in the car and sounded a high-pitched alarm to tell Kitto he was on police radar. This all happened in the space of a third of a second, after which the car remained ‘cloaked’ for five seconds, giving Kitto time to slow down.
Police were able to work out Kitto’s original speed by viewing footage of his car on the A64 at Whitwell- on-the-Hill, near York. Prosecutor Stephanie Hancock told York Crown Court his average speed had been between 81 and 89mph. She added: ‘At its highest speed the car was doing 91mph. The defendant very quickly slowed down and the Crown would say it was because the beeping device activated and he was alerted to the speed camera.’
Kitto admitted perverting the course of justice and speeding on June 30 last year. Philip Morris, mitigating, said: ‘He genuinely believed he was not committing an offence of this magnitude.
‘He urges anyone with one of these devices not to use it and to throw it away. There are no formal sentenc- ing guidelines. He was not aware of the serious predicament he is in. And for what? Trying to evade a fixed penalty. Even at 91mph there is every likelihood a fixed penalty would have been offered.’
Judge Stubbs ordered the device be destroyed and said Kitto had avoided jail only because of his previous good character.
The judge added: ‘I hope the message goes out from this court to everyone else that perverting the course of justice almost inevitably leads to a custodial sentence.’
Traffic constable Andy Forth said the use of the devices was widespread. He added: ‘They are legal to sell, legal to buy, and legal to fit. But they are illegal to use in this way.
‘If you have one of these devices, take it off. If you are caught speeding it is three penalty points and a £100 fine – or maybe just a speeding awareness course. But if you are caught using this sort of device, your liberty could be taken away.’