TROUBLED jockey Kieren Fallon was let off a speeding charge at Ely Magistrate s Court on Tuesday, thanks to the successful technicality arguments of a lawyer who dubs himself The Motorist s Friend. A BMW registered to Fallon was clocked doing 40mph in a

TROUBLED jockey Kieren Fallon was let off a speeding charge at Ely Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, thanks to the successful technicality arguments of a lawyer who dubs himself The Motorist's Friend.

A BMW registered to Fallon was clocked doing 40mph in a 30mph limit on the Milton Road in Cambridge on May 16 last year, just after 5.30am.

According to the prosecution, Mr Fallon, of the Severals, Bury Road, Newmarket, failed to return documents to the police's Central Ticket Office within the statutory 28-day period and was issued with a court summons. He later named Christy Johnson, of the Railway Tavern in Longstanton, as the driver.

Witness Christopher Northrop, head of the Huntingdon-based Cambridgeshire Constabulary Safety Camera Unit, told the court that he had checked the camera four days before and it was working.

When the camera clocked Fallon's BMW Mr Northrop then returned to the Milton Road camera the following day, and removed the film for processing. Police then traced the vehicle to Fallon using their national computer.

Defending, Fallon's solicitor, Mancunian Motorist's Friend Warren Bergson, said:

"We all get post and sometimes it gets left behind the radiator, sometimes the dog eats it. It may stick in the throat, but the fact is there is no evidence. I can only say it as I see it. If offends common sense to say that because something is not on the computer, it never happened."

"The Central Ticket Office [to which speeding tickets are sent] have to get their act together and produce an authoritative statement. How can we be sure because the computer says so that my client didn't send it back?"

Under cross-examination from Mr Bergson, Mr Northrop admitted: "We deal with 30,000 cases a year. Errors will occur."

Presiding magistrate Kathy Bradney said: "In this particular case we are not satisfied with the Central Ticket Office records, therefore we find that there is no case to answer."

Speaking outside court, Mr Bergson told assembled reporters: "I do think that the Central Ticket Office ought to be expected to produce an authoritative witness to satisfy the court that record was reliable.