[Laurent]

Hi - basically
I was driving to my work (around the Essex/Cambridgeshire border) on a 70mph road. Traffic is really bad getting out of my city at the moment so I was running really late and I was speeding - my speedometer said around 78mph which from my knowledge of my car is actually around 75mph. So speeding but not way over. I’m in the right hand lane.
Big car comes up behind me - I know it is speeding obviously for it to have caught up with me. There’s a lot of drivers in this area with big 4x4s that are quite aggressive so I was freaked out by this. I sped up a bit to try to find a place to pull in to the left hand lane because I want it to overtake me. It follows me, which really confuses me because there’s not much space in the left hand lane and it seemed like it wanted to go fast. So I move over to the right hand lane and it follows me again at which point I am pretty freaked out, and then it turns its lights on - it’s an unmarked police car.
I get pulled over - I think I’m fairly polite but I’m really scared. He tells me I’m going 86 - (as an aside I genuinely don’t think this can be right by the way - I will admit I think my speedometer is about 82 when I was trying to shake what I thought was just a aggressive driver, but for my car to be going 86 my speedometer needs to read about 90 and I just don’t think that was the case.)
Anyways he asks me where I’m going, I say to work. He tells me that there’s been a bunch of accidents recently and that my car is old and piece of shit (paraphrasing, but that’s true it’s 2006 Peugeot). And then he asks if the car is registered in my name and I say yes and pull out my license (obviously that doesn’t show my cars insurance but I wasn’t really thinking properly). He asks me what speed I think I was going and I say 75 and I explain that I was freaked out by how close a large car came behind me. I think he dismissed this largely.
Then he just says to have a nice day and he drives off.
Can I ask - does this mean I have a ticket? What happens after this? Also can the police lie to you about what speed you are doing? Because genuinely if the 86mph thing is correct then I would genuinely be worried that my speedometer is broken.
thank You in advance for any advice.

[Drivingforfun]

I don't know whether those speed guns they use work while the user is moving??

The "86" was probably the speed on his speedo when he was trying to catch you up ... what that means r.e. your speed = nothing

I can't help but think of that super old trope quote where the copper doesn't realise he needs to go faster than the offender to catch them up??

[Drivingforfun]

Just a random bit to add ... sadly if it ever happens in future your argument wouldn't work

As a new driver I happened to have a police officer as my passenger and mentioned I was worried about a tailgater, and should I speed up? Then said, "oh it looks like a police car" - my passenger told me in no uncertain terms the "I was intimidated" explanation wouldn't go down well 😊

[NMNeil]

If the sign say's 70 and you are going faster than 70 you are speeding. If you get a ticket all you have is mitigating circumstances to argue.
As for the police lying;
I posted some time ago that I would run traffic (speeding enforcement) in a 30 zone. If someone was going at 35 I could stop them and give them a ticket but I never did because they could argue, speedo error, radar calibration etc, plus all I had to do was wait for a few minutes and Tweedle Dee the wonder dummy would be along at 60 mph.
The police officer has way too much to lose by being caught lying on a traffic ticket, such as his job, pension etc.

[NMNeil]

Originally Posted by Drivingforfun

I don't know whether those speed guns they use work while the user is moving??

Yes they do.
Note that the patrol car speed and the targets speed are separate.
https://stalkerradar.com/police-radar/patrol

[Beelzebub]

@Laurent Did the officer warn you that you would be reported for possible prosecution?

If he did, then the next thing you see may be either a Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty (£100 and 3 points) or a Single Justice Procedure Notice, asking you to submit a plea to court.

Or you may hear nothing.

[Laurent]

@Beelzebub No he didn’t say anything at all - honestly worse. If he’d just said ‘x points x fine’ I don’t think I would be as concerned but it’s the uncertainty that is getting me

[Laurent]

@NMNeil yeah I’m not denying I was speeding, I’m not trying to get out of that, I know that is wrong.
There’s two things that just made this quite a scary experience for me - partly just the fact that a big car comes up close behind me and follows me between lanes honestly really freaked me out. I feel angry that they are allowed to do this. I was at 75ish yesterday, which is against the law, I know, but how am I meant to tell the difference between someone driving like a lunatic in a big black car and an unmarked police car doing the same? If you drove how the police was driving on a driving test you would be instantly failed. I get that in some situations idk like a police chase that is needed but I honestly feel like it should not be allowed to catch someone doing 75?
And the second thing is the uncertainty of not knowing at all what is going to happen? He said nothing at all about what he was going to do and just after telling me off and checking the car was mine he drove off.

[Laurent]

@Drivingforfun See my replies to some other people - I get that legally that does nothing for me but also that sucks because tailgating is so dangerous.

[TC1474]

@Laurent
You say that you were on a road with a 70 limit. You were on a Motorway or dual carriageway were you?

If you were on either then on a following check, your speed will be checked for at least one mile and your speeds will be recorded as between a lower speed and an upper speed over whatever distance you you were followed for.

If it was a following check, a traffic car has its calibrated speedo checked every week. It is checked over the measured mile at 30 and 60, and any discrepancies will result in any tickets or proceedings issued during the preceding week being cancelled.

If your speed was recorded using VASCAR that is a simple matter of measuring your speed over distance between 2 set points resulting in an average speed, and if it is Lazer, the that is accurate to the Nth degree.

If you were on a normal A class road where the national speed limit is 60, then you only have to be followed for a maximum of 3/10 of a mile, but the calibration checks remain the same.

To suggest the the Police would lie to you regarding your speed is a foolish comment. Catching speeding motorists is bread and butter for 99% of traffic cops, and for every one they lose, 10 will take their place. Certainly based on my 30 years of being a traffic cop I would rather let one go than put my career and pension in jeopardy when there is plenty more fish in the sea , and when they are being trained the emphasis is on if in doubt let them go as they will come again.

As to whether you will get a ticket? Did the copper say something along the lines of

"You will be reported for consideration of the question of prosecuting you for the offence of excess speed"

That is called a verbal NIP and is a statutory requirement for certain traffic offences, speeding being one of them. If he did not say those words to you, then it is unlikely it will go any further because it would mean having to prepare a load of paperwork and ensure that a written NIP is sent out so that it reaches you within 14 days of the alleged offence (There is more to it, but that is the basic rule)

99.9% will have given you the verbal NIP because of the amount of paperwork it saves and there is then no time barrier.

If you receive a summons or any other form of a notice of a penalty and you have not receives either a verbal or written NIP, then any prosecution becomes invalid.

By the sound of it you were simply given a warning and you just need to put it down to experience.

Don't let other vehicle's intimidate you regardless of who they might be, it is your licence and you do noy=t have to put that licence at risk just because someone is coming up fast behind you, no matter who or what they are.

[Laurent]

@TC1474
thank you very much this was very helpful.

On their comment on my speed - my statement was meant earnestly in that if his comment was correct then I genuinely want to get my speedometer looked at - but I don’t want to do that unnecessarily. I knew I was speeding but I genuinely thought my speed was about 75mph. I don’t know if that sounds like I’m making excuses - it’s not meant to be that.

nothing was said to me at the time about process going forwards - not in either direction.
which is partly why it stressed me out - I felt a bit in limbo and felt unresolved.

i feel better today though with time. It was a quite unsettling and scary experience for me which I guess is the purpose.