FERRARINUTTER

On the way to work a Police car sat waiting on an island-strange as no one ever parks there!

As I pull away keeping the revs low!!!The Police car follows me, I decide to head up a country road knowing that if I'm followed I'm pulled!

Blue lights flash & I quickly hop out.

"Morning Officer"
"Morning Sir, thats an excessive exhaust, can you pop the bonnet"

Bonnet opens, then officer on the floor, side stepping the dog **** (he even warned me about that!)

"Well sir, an excessive exhaust noise, front windows obscured through tinting & no cats.......

I have 2 options, to take you to court or to give you 14 days" (Oh god let it be 14 days I pray!)

"14 days it is!"

With that I'm handed 2 producers..

I then asked" strange for you to wait there, it was almost like you expected me?"

"Yes sir a neigbour has complained about excessive exhaust noises & we like to follow up our enquiries".

Well fair cop....

1. It was loud 109db, though all my neighbours are 60 plus....
2. The flamer kit was never spotted, (phew)
3. The tints were 5% darker than the legal limit
4. The cats - ahhh we all hate cats unless your stroking it.

So:
1. Window tints off, waiting to get legal limit reapplied
2. Quiet backbox goes back on tomorrow with hole made for flamer kit
3. Cats make a return

Be careful out there some Essex officers really know there stuff & have side lines sellling decat pipes !!! Ha

But the officers were pleasant, courteous & friendly to which I made an apology for my laddish behaviour.


Now to rob a bank............

Zagangaphile

And how many muggings and burglaries were being comitted whilest the the police attended to your obviously lethal and livelyhood threatening window tints...

Scratch

iTrader: (1)

Yes, indeed there is nothing like a productive and appropriate use of police resource. . . .

At least they were pleasant about it so perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies. . . . ? ? ?

Tiggs

"And how many muggings and burglaries were being comitted "

who cares? are the police only suppose to deal with serious crime? when your 60 and some yobbo keeps you up all night with loud music would you be happy if you called the police and they said "sorry sir, we are sat here waiting for a murder"

T

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

And for this sort of sh*t we pay these t*ssers how much a year???
[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
Alcazar

rich uk300

police don't attend loud music incidents.....

PeterUK300

iTrader: (1)

No where near as much as Tube Drivers

[Edited by PeterUK300 - 10/24/2002 7:16:03 PM]

dhorwich

how did he know you didnt have a CAT..?? are they scoob experts as well as time waisting pi*#..

Dan

12LEE

FFS. Spoke to Scotland Yard card fraud unit about a recent £1k+ hit on our business. Stock answer of "It's a victimless crime" came back, to which I retorted "so's speeding, but you still police that".

This country is pants.

Moles Dad

Not sure the argument regarding muggings and murders is really relavant....I know what you mean though, I have always been miffed by the local plod and especially traffic plod

BUT...the traffic are traffic and the CID are CID etc etc, so really if we are guilty of an offence in a car...we cop it

I just reckon its a bad luck thing, the more you drive, the higher the chance of getting a pull...goes with having a 'slightly' illegal car....allegedly

FERRARINUTTER

The Police Officer knew there were no cats....because wait for it....he sells decatted systems to Subaru Impreza Owners!!

If only I had bought my system from him........

dhorwich

He still needs evidence.... which can only be done by a speciaist inspecing the exhaust... He cant treat you from what he personally knows, what if it was someone else who pulled you that day who didnt have a clue...

The thing that gets me is, it is legal one day and when they decide, its not legal the next... you spent alot of money on a 'legal' product and then from know where they make it illegal.....

Where does it end...

Why dont they sort out those peskey kids that fly around on mopeds at 1 'o' clock in the morning with derestricted exhausts...!!!! they make a right racket...!!!

Dan

Steve Whitehorn

iTrader: (13)

One word....







WAKNERS

FERRARINUTTER

Difficult to tell if the uppipe is still catted though,,,,,,,,,,,,oh well still got the flamer kit :}

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Did he have a beard?

FERRARINUTTER

In defense of the Police as I was producing my legal documentation to say I was a competent driver & insured to drive a car, even though I had a "killer" zorst on the back, they were only doing their job & they were polite....

Meanwhile at a local Police station in Essex, as I waited 38 minutes to be seen (still service level agreements are non existent), a copper's wife came in wanting to speak to an Inspector as the copper had beaten her up & given the boot to one of her children & smacked the other child so that bruising was left on their bottoms......

Now I wonder what the outcome of that will be????

FERRARINUTTER

PUFF - yes he did and is apparently well known...........& is keeping an eye out for me.....(long wait got a new car at the weekend!)

Tim Bomford

Sounds like ex-SIDC membership secretary then.......

Mantamac

Next time you are stopped ask the Officer what his engineering qualification's are to back up his finding's(they don't know if you have any so they may back down). A CAT is not a legal requirement so long as the car passes the M.O.T emmision's test.
There is a legal loophole to the stop check scenario. You can ask for the examination of your vehicle to be defered to another time(when they give you a date the legal bit's will be back on by then). I can't remmember the section of the Road Traffic Act but I'm sure someone will remind me.It can only be used if the defect is not causing a danger e.g an exhaust doesn't cause an immediate danger to the public or other road user's(useful if your a biker with a race can).So if your tyre's are bald forget it. In the case of the tinted window's they could argue that they are a danger as they make it harder to see out of the vehicle.

Mac.

andrew420

same thing happened to me must be an essex thing

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=20150&f=10&h=0

Dracoro

To be fair. The car was in an illegal state and the original poster is (happily?) putting the car into an acceptable state. The policeman generously gave him a producer rather than a court appearance.

Also, someone phoned the police to complain and the complaint was followed up. I'll bet many of you calling the police various names will also be the 1st to complain that they do nothing if you phone them up. They can't win can they!

All in all, it sounds like the copper in this instance was being generous and if he was a 'w4nker', as someone politely put it, he would have sent the guy to court & all that that entails.

BuRR

Some of these replies are quite funny.

FERRARINUTTER

The Police were very good, polite & reasonable...cannot fault that & as the car is somewhat illegal then yes it makes sense to change those parts.

Though there are 3 issues.

1. How petty of my neighbour to call the Police, when a word with me (I'm not unreasonable & even I admit the zorst was too loud!) would have done the trick

2. A waste of Police time, they spent 4 mornings waiting for me.....following up a complaint from a neighbour

3. I have now bought a torch & will be checking roadside tax, with mobile in hand......all for a good revenue building exercise to help the guys in blue....



[Edited by FERRARINUTTER - 10/25/2002 8:02:15 AM]

NotoriousREV

It's a little galling when you call the police when your car has been broken into and all they do is give you a crime number over the phone, they don't bother coming to look for evidence even after several cars are done in the same street in the same night obviously by the same people but they're happy to respond to a neighbours complaint about exhaust noise. I know it's different "departments" within the police but the top brass seems to have it's priorities wrong.

How often do we hear about the police being under-manned yet they managed to spare an officer for half an hour to lie in wait on a roundabout.

This isn't dig at the officers who are doing their job, more at the management of the police.

mutant_matt

FN,

It's nice to hear that they were at least reasonable but a couple of things do spring to mind which are worth bearing in mind:

1. They cannot give you a summons for something they have proven to be illegal. To do this, the Exhaust would have to be properly tested for emissions and noise as it's not illegal not to have a Cat, but it has to pass the emissions test. They can (I believe issue a 14 day notice thing which means you have to go and prove that it is not illegal at an MOT testing station.

2. Like someone else said, when he asked you to pop the bonnet, you should have asked why? If the car is not unsafe, you can state that "it is not convenient for them to inspect the car right now" and request a deferred test. They won't like it but it's the law. You then arrange the place to be somewhere far away (like in another county) and they will almost certainly then not bother. The thing about this that makes me laugh is, how can they tell whether it's safe or not (and therefore whether they're allow to inspect it) unless they inspect it? Catch 22?

3. I was told by a cop once that if they wish to inspect your vehicle, they have to be a qualified vehicle examiner and I think, have to be able to produce their certificate before they can examine your vehicle. If they are Traffic cops then they will almost certainly have this but if they are not, then they won't. It's academic anyway as I refer you to point 2.

Where abouts in Essex are we talking about BTW (and are we talking about Mr G?)?

Matt

mutant_matt

P.S. BuRR, can you confirm or deny any of that lot?

Ta,

Matt

BuRR

from what I understand, it wasn't a summons, it was a vehicle defect rectification notice, which gives the owner 14 days to rectify a "defect" otherwise face summons for the original matter.

I'm looking into the law and current stance on exhaust noise, so please bear with me.

FERRARINUTTER

Southend area and yes the "infamous G"

Jolly Green Monster 2

That is petty of your neighbour..

My neighours are also mainly over 60 and one up the end is a Policeman and next door to him is an ex-Policeman and I think his wife still works in the local Policestation behind the reception desk etc..

Not one complaint about my very loud bike that leaves in the early hours and returns late at night.. infact one set of over 60 neighbours have even started calling it Thunderbird 1!!
And said they know when I am back on Thunderbird 1... the other direct neighbour says when I leave on a Monday morning he hears the bike and decides it much be time to get up now.. not one even hint of can you quieten it down etc.. hopefully when the car is also as loud the same will apply.

Sounds like you need to run the engine with no exhaust for a couple of hours when you swap the original back... fixing an engine fault! So Scooby meet at your place anyone??
20 Scoobies in your road might get them thinking.

I take the same attitude as you when stopped.. fair enough and I always feel being polite gets you treated better.
It is not the officer that makes the rules he/she is just enforcing them, where would it get me mouthing off at them or holding the view that they are W anchors and other such names meantioned in the thread already...

And yes I have been let off speeding by being polite...

JGM

PS: Flamer kit!!!

Lunchie

If like me, you have full decat but STi centre section , from the outside it looks like there's a cat as its identical to the UK centre section.. except the box is empty...

"Yes officer, its got the centre cat"

Edited to say if your neighbour had complained, would you really have changed your exhaust back?

Don't forget "Loud zorsts save lives"

Lunchie

[Edited by Lunchie - 10/25/2002 9:09:56 AM]