Speed camera boss breaks limit FOUR times

The man putting the latest sneaky speed cameras in Britain's roads has been caught breaking the limit outside a PRIMARY SCHOOL. Christopher Booy is the executive chairman of Speed Check Services - the company behind controversial new Specs cameras. But the News of the World caught flashy Booy, 52, speeding through a 30mph zone FOUR times in three days.At just before 5pm on Wednesday, the tanned businessman was clocked in his convertible Jaguar XK8 as he headed to his home in Portbury, near Bristol.

He was snapped doing 38mph . We know because we had an investigator lying in wait with a radar speed gun. We chose a spot right outside a primary school. The road is clearly marked with the speed limit and there are signs warning that children might be crossing. But that didn't stop the camera boss picking up speed as he drove home from work.

Booy was at it again on Thursday . At just after midday headed off from home in casual clothes and a dark blue Ford Fiesta. Just 200 yards past the primary school we clocked him at 41mph. It was the same speeding story on the way home. Our investigator snapped him directly outside the primary school at 3.38pm doing 38mph just minutes after parents had picked up their youngsters from school.

We clocked Booy for the third day running outside the same school on Friday. He left home just before midday and as he drove into view he was doing a legal 27mph. But as he got nearer to the school and our speed trap his speed picked up to 38mph. Environmental campaigners Transport 2000 say a pedestrian hit by a car at 35mph is twice as likely to be killed as someone struck at 30mph.

When we confronted Booy he said: "Obviously I shouldn't be speeding and if you say that I was then I probably was. That's life, I guess. Our speed cameras are primarily for safety zones, that's what we're about - to restrict people from speeding. We provide what we believe is something to reduce speeds and the evidence is in the pilots we have done. Maybe this is a good lesson that we should have more of them, so everybody stays within the speed limit," he sneered. Booy netted a fortune last year after his consultancy firm, Symonds was sold for £30 million to Capita Group, who run Londons congestion charge. And he hit the headlines earlier this month after it emerged his firm - Speed Check Services - was behind the new high tech speed cameras which read every number plate as it passes and checks the speed. Because they don't flash, motorists don't know they've been clocked until a £60 fine drops on the doormat.

Last night it emerged the head of Metropolitan Police's traffic division was in hot water after being caught travelling at 82mph in a 40mph zone. Chief Supt Les Owen was being driven to a meeting in a marked police car. His driver was later fined.

Source: Ross Hindley, News of the World, Sunday 17th April 2005, Pg 27.