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Speed policy cop on speeding charge
THE policeman in charge of speeding policy on Britain's roads is facing prosecution for breaking the speed limit.
Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, the Association of Chief Police Officers' lead on road policing, was allegedly caught speeding on the A5 near Chirk earlier this year.
The offence reportedly occurred on a 60mph stretch of the road in May, a matter of days before Mr Hughes' controversial suggestion that speed cameras should be made less visible so as to catch more offenders.
A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: "Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes has received a notice of intended prosecution in respect of an alleged driving offence in North Wales in the early morning of a Bank Holiday Monday in May while he was on holiday. No summons has yet been received."
Mr Hughes was appointed to his current role of Chief Constable of South Yorkshire in September, 2004.
He became the ACPO lead on roads in 2005, taking over from North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom who is notorious for his hard-line stance on motoring offences
Mr Hughes is due to appear before Wrexham Magistrates on November 21.
The full article contains 194 words and appears in Evening Leader Flintshire newspaper.
The area where the Chief Constable was caught speeding. 
The Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police in England, Meredydd Hughes, was found guilty of speeding at Wrexham Magistrates Court today and banned from driving.  He was caught driving at 90 mph where the speed limit was 60 mph.  Wrexham Magistrates court disqualified Hughes from driving for 42 days and fined him £350.

The Chief Constable did not appear in court in person, but was represented by his solicitor, Huw Edwards.  Mr Edwards said:

"He doesn't seek to make any excuse about this matter. He totally accepts that the police have a duty to do.  He is no exception and he accepts that he must be punished for the offence."

"He asks me to apologise for the offence. He recognises that the matter is a serious matter." 

Hughes had already received six penalty points on his license from previous speeding convictions and a conviction for failing to identify the speeding driver of one of his force's vehicles in 2006, although his driving licence was free of points at the time he went to court.  Wrexham Magistrates Court had adjourned the case to today from a date in late November, as Meredydd Hughes initially claimed that he has still not yet found a solicitor to represent him.

Matthew Elliot, the Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, criticized Hughes for wasting Court time at the taxpayer's expense. "Meredydd Hughes has shown breathtaking hypocrisy in this case," said Elliot. "Not only has he been caught preaching one thing and doing another in the past, but he has also wasted court time and therefore taxpayers’ money."

Jools Townsend, speaking for the Road Safety Campaign group Brake, said the offence was "Shocking" and the sentence "lenient" - and that the Chief Constable should "Seriously consider his position as a result".

The incident is embarrassing for South Yorkshire Police, as Hughes was the Chair of ACPO's road policing enforcement committee, with responsibility for developing police policies about how speed cameras are used.  Hughes is a supporter of mobile speed cameras and believes that all speed cameras should be deliberately hidden from motorists, and has given interviews on the importance of road safety management in businesses.