Magistrates' fears over new police powers to give drivers £60 on-the-spot fines

At last someone is standing up to the police 'service'.
Not content with wanting to have more control - they are now the judge and jury on careless driving issues.
Understandably, magistrates aren't too pleased with this.
All you have to do is join up various issues: less than 50% of cases now get to court (the police issue lots of cautions including, unbelievabley, for rape).
The prison population is now at an all time high - and it's so incredibly difficult to get sent to prison now.
So Labour tell us crime is falling but fewer offences are dealt with in courts and those that are have a very slim chance of being sent down.
Welcome to Blair's Britain!

This is in today's Daily Mail:

Police cannot be trusted to hand out on-the-spot fines for some motoring offences, magistrates warned today.They claim officers will 'misuse' the powers and force drivers to pay the fixed penalty notices when they have done nothing wrong.In a scathing attack, the Magistrates Association said that by giving police powers to hand out fines for careless driving, innocent motorists will be penalised while some guilty drivers could avoid jail terms. Scathing attack: Police should not be given the power to issue on-the-spot punishments for careless driving, say magistrates (file photo) The Government is planning to give police new powers to hand out £60 fines and three penalty points on their licence to motorists guilty of careless driving.Currently, offenders are prosecuted in the courts where they can face a fine of up to £5,000 and up to nine points on their licence.But police leaders want more powers to issue the fixed penalty notices as it frees up officers time as they are not bogged down with paperwork for court.The number of on-the-spot fines issued by police has risen sharply under Labour - largely due to the introduction of the 'penalty notice for disorder' which was introduced in 2004.
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The police cannot be trusted because they will always ALWAYS abuse their power.
This means no-one will get a summons to appear before a court and here at MAD - we think that's an outrage!

Captain Gatso
The Motorists Friend