Motorist wins 'obscured sign' speeding appeal

A motorist today won a High Court test case which legal experts say should prevent drivers being convicted in future if their view of roadside speed limit signs is obscured by overhanging trees or hedges.

Businessman John Coombes was enraged when he was found guilty and fined for speeding in a 30mph zone - even though an overgrown hedge meant he could not see a roadside signpost warning of the restriction.

He described the fine - "my first speeding fine in 32 years of driving" - as highway robbery.

Today his conviction was quashed by two senior High Court judges in London who ruled that, because of an obscured sign, he had not had sufficient warning that he was passing from a 40mph zone into a 3Omph stretch.

Later his solicitor, Jeffrey Bannister, said: "This is a very important point for motorists.

"This judgment has finally confirmed what many motorists have always felt: that they should not be convicted if trees and hedges overhanging or obscuring signs mean they cannot properly see the signs, and they are not given adequate notice of changes in the speed limit."

Mr Coombes, from Wells, Somerset, was caught in a police speed trap when he exceeded 30mph on the B3139 Bath Road at Horrington near Wells while driving home from work at about 5pm on July 4 last year.

He was convicted of speeding by Mendip magistrates in January this year and fined £250 and ordered to pay £150 legal costs.

At Bristol Crown Court, both conviction and fine were upheld in a 2-1 majority decision in April, and he was ordered to pay a further £229 legal costs.

Today the High Court ordered that, having won his case, his legal costs should be reimbursed out of public funds.