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A MOTORCYCLIST caught travelling at over 60mph in a 30mph zone has been ordered to pay almost £2,500.

Redbridge Magistrates Court heard on May 5 how a motorcyclist on his Kawasaki ZX1200 was detected by a traffic officer using a Prolaser III on The Highway, in London in May last year.

He was defended by Motoringlawyers.com, denied exceeding the speed limit on his way home from a night shift and claimed that the device had miscalculated his speed.

David Burgess, an accident investigator from the Wayman Consultancy, commissioned as a defence expert, presented a report to the court which claimed that all laser speedmeters are susceptible to chronic errors caused by the slip effect.

The slip effect is caused when the device's infrared pulses are disrupted by the operator moving the beam down the side of the vehicle instead of keeping it steady.

The report alleged that the Prolaser III interpreted the movement of the beam as speed, and the length of the motorcycle was added to the distance actually travelled. Therefore, it claimed that the speed of 61mph was far greater than his actual speed.

But Richard Lomax, prosecuting, said that the defence report contained no evidence of a fault in the device and it contained no evidence that showed that the speed reading was rendered inaccurate as speculated.

Prosecution expert, Steve Callaghan, of RSS, explained that to increase the speed reading from 30mph to 61mph the motorcycle would need to measure at least 4.5 metres. But he confirmed that the actual length of the bike was 2.08 metres and that Type Approved laser speedmeters were not susceptible to that sort or error.

The court rejected the arguments put forward by the defence and the motorcyclist was ordered to pay costs of £2116. He was also fined £280 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15.