Snooper - Laser detector/parking sensor

[up4it]

My friend is trying to talk me into getting one of these to avoid any potential speeding tickets

N.B. Do gooders who can only say dont speed need not reply!!!

Anyway the theory is that they are legal as they are used as a parking sensor, a side effect of them is that they will scramble a policemans laser speed gun. If it was solely a laser scrambler then they would be illegal

My questions are ....
Does anyone have one of these?
What do you think of it?
Does it work?
Is it worth the money?
Is it still legal?

Any advise/comments greatfully received

[squarebear]

I don't see how a device like that would be legal.

It's like saying I run a pirate radio station for people to listen to. A side effect is that it scrambles the mobile phone signals for ambulances.

[Ethel]

Excellent idea.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

it is totally illegal.

[Ethel]

Yes, but Norm - she's not bothered about breaking the law by speeding, so she obviously doesn't care if this is legal or not.

[squarebear]

Can I ask where you get the nonsense about the side effect being okay as that isn't its main purpose?

[Toureman]

A much cheaper option is to spray paint your number plates so they cannot be read by speed cameras, illegal as well.

[Richard1966]

How about stealing someone else's car so that when you do trigger a speed camera the ticket goes to the rightful owner. brilliant

[up4it]

Here is a snippet from one sensor ....
The Laser Pro Park is new to the UK and has already become one of the best sellers with The Radar Detector Shop. This is a parking sensor that will give an audible and visual warning as you get closer to an object. The Laser Pro will be looking for a specific signal coming back from the object so if anything else which isn't recognised is sending a signal it will switch off after a few seconds. This is useful if there are other laser signals hitting the car like Police laser guns for instance. As a Police laser gun or laser speedtrap is a safety system the Laser Pro is programmed to recognise this and will switch itself off after a few seconds so that the Police can then get a reading, keeping you on the right side of the law and the Police officer happy.

They seem to think its legal !!!

[ChuckFickens]

I would imagine they are very similar to the garage door openers that also scramble the laser speed guns, it is a very gray area..

if you were to fit one and it got spotted by the police you would have a good chance of being taken to court, it would then be down to you to prove beyond doubt that you had fitted it innocently for the purpose of being a parking sensor and you were totally unaware of any side effects it may have on speed guns, which due to the nature of the places these are purchased from and the way they are advertised you wouldn't really have a hope in hell of being able to do that!

So no the devices are not illegal as such, but to use them for blocking speed guns is illegal.

[jake-the-peg]

This guy had one

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorks hire/6970841.stm

He was done for perverting the course of justice fined �5,000 and lost his license.

[david1702198]

theres a difference between BLOCKING police speed guns and using a device which PRE-WARNS you that a speed camera is up ahead, if it is the case that this is illegal then im presuming any sat-nav company are breaking the law then for their systems which do exactly the same thing. by the sounds of it this device that up4it is referring to does not interfere with the speed camera or its ability to operate properly

[Ethel]

David - there are two 'parking sensors' on the market. One scrambles a laser gun (as stated in the opening post) and the other one doesn't.

The first one is illegal, the second one is isn't.

Up4it says she wants the one that scrambles the gun, not gives advance warning of it.

[DrFilth]

a speed camera makes a lot of money for the nice mr brown.
it will not find bad drivers, duff cars and vans.

speed limit of 70 mph was started as a temporay measure in 1965 by transport minister tom fraser.before that you could drive as fast as you wanted so as it was safe.

here is a question for the clever sods
what item of the highway code has never changed since it was first published ?

[DrFilth]

typo...
so long as it was safe.

[up4it]

Re the link was provided by Jake ....
The guy had a similar device but his was for opening automatic garage doors (side effect affects lasers) but he couldn't really claim that it was brought for his garage as his garage did not have automatic doors hence he got done. If I got one of these I could not claim it was for any other purpose than for scrambling lasers

However I am buying a parking sensor for that purpose alone hence it is legal. The fact that it scrambles lasers is immaterial as I am not buying it for the purpose of 'perverting the course of justice', I just need a little help with my parking

They do come fitted with a cut out after a few seconds which then enables the police to get a reading so I am not trying to avoid detection, hence again it is legal

The fact that in those few seconds my brakes will be slammed on so hard to reduce my speed to reasonable level is again immaterial

[up4it]

DrFilth - Go on then, I give up???

[DrFilth]

up4it
the answer is in your last sentence ?
years ago you had drum brakes, now i have twin discs front and rear. yet when you take your driving test the answer to the braking question has never changed.

ps hope there are none on the m6 the beast is going out


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[Cockney_si]

I can;t see why you would waste your money when you could still be caught for speeding.

If say an unmarked police car was behind another speeding car and they were filming it and then you come whizzing by then surely they could easily prove you were speeding.

[up4it]

Cockney - Vascars work in a completely different way so this would not warn me about them, it would only warn me about the police at the roadside with a hairdrier

I am not eliminating but only reducing my chances of being caught