UK NEWS

UPROAR OVER ‘LET-OFF FOR 140MPH STAR’

GUILTY: Amir Khan

Tuesday January 8,2008

By Paul Broster

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(8)

SAFETY campaigners hit out yesterday as millionaire boxer Amir Khan walked free despite police telling a court how he drove at 140mph.

An officer said the speedometer in his patrol car “went off the clock” at the maximum 155mph as he raced for six miles to catch Khan who “flashed” past him on a motorway.

Khan, 21, denied speeding but was found guilty after incriminating himself in the witness stand. He admitted he may have broken the 70mph limit by driving at 75mph.

The Olympic silver medallist was fined £1,000 and barred from driving for six weeks but it will not be added to his current six-month ban.

He got that in October for careless driving after jumping a red light at 47mph in the wrong lane and mowing down a 55-year-old pedestrian on a pelican crossing, breaking his leg.

Khan escaped more severe punishment at Rochdale magistrates court yesterday after his lawyer pointed out that the policeman who chased him did not have a speed gun and had to rely on the “old-fashioned technique” of taking an average reading from his speedometer over a specified distance.

Campaign groups attacked the boxer who is widely tipped to become world lightweight champion.

Amy Aeron-Thomas, of RoadPeace, said: “Amir Khan may be a boxing hero to many but he is a threat to even more with his driving.

“Exceeding the motorway speed limit by 100 per cent, as estimated by the police, should have earned him a dangerous driving charge with a much longer ban and larger fine.

“Instead this ban is being allowed to run alongside his current ban. Who is showing less capacity to learn – Amir Khan or the courts?” Lorna Jackson, of road safety charity Brake, said: “This sentence smacks of a justice system poorly equipped to tackle crimes committed on roads.”

Khan was stopped on the M62 at 3.45am on New Year’s Eve 2006 as he drove home to Bolton after a night out with friends in Leeds.

PC Paul Saunders said he had to chase Khan’s silver BMW 630i convertible for six miles.

District Judge Pamela Baldwin said: “It was clear that Mr Khan was driving at considerably more than 70mph. But at no point was the police car in a position to determine his exact speed. I therefore cannot be sure it was more than 100mph.”

Khan, whose house is called In A Rush, said after the case: “I never drove at 140mph. I am not a fast driver. I have learned my lesson. It will never happen again.” He was also ordered to pay £790 costs.

SPEEDING CELEBRETIES

08.01.08, 10:00pm

Yet again a celebrety who has loads mooney and can afford an expensive lawyer gets away with it, you can gaurantee that if it had been a member of the public they WOULD have got a very heavy fine and banned for at least a years.

Also the comment from one liberal idiot who says that the police should be investigated for chasing him is in deed an idiot, what are the police to do stop pursueing dangerours drivers, and that is what Kahn is, if so they may as well disband the police, and don't come back with the old rubbish that there are criminals for the police to catch.

• Posted by: KEEF • Report Comment

"YOU KNOW WHERE THIS ALL GOING"

08.01.08, 8:35pm

Can't take it away from the lad, a superb boxer and athelete, but he just a s**t driver, he will soon be joing his Mate , " Prince Naseem" in the pokey ? its just a matter of time ?

• Posted by: BratislavaUK • Report Comment

THE_WAY_I_SEE_IT

08.01.08, 5:06pm

I gather that you are disturbed by the fact a police officer apparently went well over the speed limit to pursue the foolish young man. The problem is, if police do not make any attempt to intercept these drivers, we just have to sit back and let them continue breaking the law and put other people's lives at risk.

What's the use of having traffic police if they cannot do their job: and that includes pursuit.

• Posted by: Zeigfreid • Report Comment

DOES HE HAVE TO KILL SOMEONE BEFORE THE LAW IS APPLIED TO HIM?

08.01.08, 4:54pm

Or is it, that they are afraid of him because he is a Moslem? He obviously has to have something over them to get away with such lenient sentences. The dickhead's proved himself to have no regard whatsoever for our motoring laws. After all, he is a millionaire and he could afford a driver for the next couple of years. How can anyone claim they need their driving licence to conduct their business when they prove time and time again that they cannot be trusted behind the wheel?

• Posted by: Zeigfreid • Report Comment

MONEY TALKS!

08.01.08, 1:34pm

I suppose if you've got enough money for a top lawyer, you can get off virtually anything. A couple years ago I was caught doing 82mph along the A30 down here in Devon and was fined £80 and had 3 points on my licence yet I was told that the method used to calculate my speed, an average speed over a set distance, the same as was used to disprove Amir Khan's speed in this instance, that this method was perfectly adequate and I had no defence. It just goes to show that money does indeed talk!

• Posted by: mikeyp • Report Comment

IF POLICE PURSUED THIS PERSON AT OVER 155MPH AS CLAIMED.

08.01.08, 11:21am

And failed to collect sufficient evidence to convict they are indeed incompetent and need to look at their procedures.

Also an officer claiming to be speeding at over 155mph in a court where he can offer no evidence against the speeding motorist he claimed to be pursuing should be investigated for endangering the publc.

I do not give a fig how qualified this police driver was to use such excessive speed 155mph+ on a public road where other drivers are not as well trained is ludicrous and dangerous.

• Posted by: The_Way_I_See_It • Report Comment