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Transport - Speeding 2

A motorist was arrested at his home, driven 150 miles and held by police for nearly 24 hours without food, because of a SPEEDING ticket. Jeff Simm was also handcuffed to a violent junkie before being taken to a court hearing that lasted ONE MINUTE. He was fined £120 and told to make his own way home by train. But the amazing saga is estimated to have cost taxpayers £1,500. The businessman, whose ordeal began when he was stopped for allegedly driving his VW Golf at 90mph on a motorway in Scotland, said, "It was a complete nightmare. I am still shaken by how badly I was treated." Jeff said he was stunned when, cops pulled up in a riot van outside his home near Manchester and put him in a cell without food for ten hours.

He was again left in a cell and then cuffed to a heroin addict. Jeff, who drives 40,000 miles a year and had a clean licence, said, "On the day I was stopped it rained and there was a lot of spray. I think the police made a genuine mistake due to the poor visibility and stopped the wrong blue Golf. I challenged them in court but couldn't make that original hearing because I was ill and on painkillers. There was an exchange of letters with the police, but they still contacted officers in Manchester to arrest me." Jeff was arrested by police who arrived in a riot van at his semi in Ashton-under-Lyne.

He added, "I think they thought it was a joke at first and even used my phone to call Dumfries and check it wasn't a mistake. After that, though, it was no laughing matter. At the Manchester police station I was handcuffed, stripped of my shoes, belt, laces and personal possessions, then locked in a cell from 11am until 9pm until two officers from Dumfries turned up. I joked on the way they ought to be careful because they didn't want to get stopped for speeding. We arrived back in Dumfries at 1am and I was again locked up without food till 9am. I was then taken to court handcuffed to a heroin addict who'd had to be subdued with CS gas."

Jeff said that although he was innocent, he pleaded guilty for fear of being held in custody any longer. "I just wanted to end the trauma," he said, adding he might sue police. But Chief Inspector Stewart Wilson for the Dumfries and Gallaway force, which last year dealt with an average of just three serious crimes a week, said Jeff got what he deserved. He claimed, "He clearly had no intention of answering the case against him. In order that justice could be administered, an arrest warrant was issued and he was traced, arrested and conveyed to Dumfries."

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