Driver fined for swearing at speed camera

MSN/Henry Biggs | February 3 2006

A motorist has been fined £80 for making offensive gestures towards a speed camera as he drove home from work.

Simon Thompson, 41, extended his middle finger at the mobile speed camera as he passed it whilst driving safely under the speed limit. Simon, from Colchester in Essex was astonished when half an hour later the two policemen who had been operating the camera knocked on his front door. The officers handed Simon a fixed penalty notice for £80 for making offensive gestures under the Public Order Act.

Simon told The Sun newspaper: "I wasn’t giving the officers the finger, I was aiming my anger at the camera. I’ve got as much contempt for speed cameras as everyone else. I’m a careful driver. My licence has been clean for ten years."

Essex Police said: "The man received the fine because he was seen to gesture several times to officers operating a mobile speed camera in an obscene and offensive way."

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