North Yorkshire driver jailed for using speed camera jammer

Nicholas Burke used the laser jammer to block a camera speed reading on the outskirts of York

A driver has been jailed for two months after using a laser jammer to avoid being caught by a speed camera.

Nicholas Burke, 46, used the device to scramble a signal from a police safety camera van on the outskirts of York in February 2018.

Officers estimated his car was travelling in excess of the road's 60mph speed limit.

The former car salesman admitted perverting the course of justice at York Crown Court.

The jammer, mounted beneath the grill on the front of Burke's company car, prevented a speed reading being taken.

Its use activated a code on the camera that indicated to officers an illegal jammer was being used.

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North Yorkshire Police said when Burke was interviewed he admitted to having a laser jammer which he said he had fitted as he was worried about getting points on his licence.

Burke, of The Green, Selby, North Yorkshire, has since resigned from his job as a Ferrari salesman.

Police found the laser jammer installed beneath the grille of Burke's BMW

Traffic constable Andy Forth said the prison sentence showed "the courts take a very dim view of people who use jammer devices".

"The purpose of our enforcement fleet is to reduce road casualties," he said.

"Therefore to use such devices to interfere with speed enforcement - one of the main four causes of fatal and serious-injury collisions - increases the risk to everyone else who uses the county's roads, and the communities they represent."