Food used to fight speed tickets

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A woman was caught speeding twice in less than three-and-a-half minutes by the same police camera and bought a McDonald's takeaway in between.

Gill Whitmore from Hendon, Sunderland will contest the tickets claiming it could not be done in the time frame.

The single mother was caught on 22 August on Ryhope Road, travelling at 38mph in a 30 zone in both directions just three minutes 23 seconds apart.

She says she has kept the food receipts and the camera must be wrong.

The school kitchen assistant already has six points on her licence and faces a ban if she loses her case.

'Egg McMuffin'

She said: "It is just impossible that I could have driven that distance and been to McDonald's in that amount of time.

"I nipped out to get some food for my kids and then I decided to get a sausage and egg McMuffin from McDonald's.

"Then a week later I got a letter with two speeding fines."

She believes the mobile camera may have been faulty and will challenge the case.

Her case has been backed by Neil Herron, the Metric Martyrs campaigner, who also fights against wrongly issued parking tickets.

We stand 100% behind the accuracy of this equipment Jeremy Forsberg

Together with a colleague he tested the route with GPS technology and has claimed the quickest time they could cover the route was five minutes 48 seconds in daytime traffic.

He said: "I suppose it's not impossible to do it in three-and-a-half minutes, if you cut across the grass verge, speed through the Drive Thru, throw your exact money to the member of staff, then catch your food in a baseball glove before driving off again."

Jeremy Forsberg, of the Northumbria Safer Roads Initiative, said Northumbria Police stood by its technology, and there was no fault with the camera.

The device measured the speed of the car by laser, it was viewed by an officer and the whole operation was videoed.

Mr Forsberg said: "Obviously she is completely within her rights to take the matter to court; however, we stand 100% behind the accuracy of this equipment."