A Brisbane magistrate has found a rider guilty of speeding, despite video evidence seeming to show he was the only one of four riders travelling together who was not speeding.
Steve, whose surname has been withheld, says the Magistrate took more than three hours to view the video evidence, but declared he could not see the second rider.
The Magistrate also said he could not discern the differences between the bikes, despite them being substantially different styles.
“No matter how many times we zoomed in and screened it, he said ‘I don’t see any evidence of a bike there’,” Steve says.
“My legal team was prepared for every argument, but not for the judge not seeing my bike. He just could not discern the difference between the second rider and the trees behind.”
Police video
Steve sent us the police video which seems to show that he was the second rider travelling about 60km/h in a 60km/h zone.
The video was also referenced in our article last week about how police fine riders speeding in groups. Click here for our article.
The four friends were riding on Mt Glorious Rd heading east toward Samford village when police officer Senior Constable John Wilkins passed them in the opposite direction in a patrol car.
The video was subpoenaed from a police body camera.
It shows the varying speeds of each rider.
The officer then does a u-turn over solid double white lines and chases them down at speeds up to 130km/h, stopping only the first three riders. The fourth rider continues past.
Police pass rider 4 who was not stoppedThe video shows the first rider at about 76km/h, then Steve at about 60 and rider three at 80km/h. The fourth rider is only seen after the u-turn.
However, it is difficult to know at what point the radar picks up the rider’s speed.
After the first rider goes past, the speed quickly drops to about 60km/h, but as Steve (rider 2) passes the car, the speed jumps up to 75km/h.
Steve believes that is the speed of rider 3 as it does not change even after he passes the car.
Steve claims he was booked for the third rider’s speed.
Speeding fine ‘mistakes’
He also says Wilkins made several other mistakes, apart from letting the fourth rider go.
“He wrote out all three tickets for the same speed; 76kmh in a 60kmh zone but then made a mistake with the third ticket which had a time 10 minutes later than the first two and has documented rider 2 travelling at 80km/h,” Steve says.
“The body camera is actually dated the day before at 10pm. How many mistakes are they going to allow?”
Steve says Wilkins mistakenly told the court rider 2 was doing 80km/h and the third rider was doing 79km/h. However, there is no evidence of another motorcycle after the one doing 80km/h and before the u-turn.
Also Wilkins is seen to be apparently turning off the radar antenna locking the display at 79km/h.
Steve has spent more than $5000 to reach the unsatisfying verdict.
He has now started a GoFundMe campaign to support his campaign to “expose the truth” and says he would do it again for the sake of justice.