Magistrate tries to evade speeding ticket

As a magistrate, Michael Rodger ought to have realised that no one is above the law. But when his wife Diane, a lecturer, was caught speeding, they went to extraordinary lengths to try to prevent her being fined £60 and getting three points on her clean driving licence.

After consulting an internet website for tips on challenging speeding tickets, they altered the car's appearance. They changed the style of the Skoda's number plate and removed stickers from its windscreen in a bizarre attempt to persuade police it had been 'cloned' and that she was not the driver, Derby Crown Court heard.But their elaborate ruse failed when police visited them and immediately recognised Mrs Rodger and one of her two young daughters as the driver and passenger from the photographs taken on a mobile speed camera.