Camera challenge leads to pounds 340 bill.

A WREXHAM man who claimed a Gatso speed camera must have been faulty has been landed with a pounds 340 bill after doing just 5mph over the limit.

David Edward Moore, 58, of Hill Court, Hightown, Wrexham, was alleged to have been driving at 35mph on the A548 Coast Road at Towyn on December 17 last year but when he appeared before Prestatyn magistrates he denied the charge.

He told the court that he had slowed to below 30mph because his wife, who was with him at the time, insisted on him keeping within the limit.

"If I go over the speed limit she gives me earache," he said.

But Malcolm Smith, a member of North Wales Police support staff responsible for monitoring the fixed cameras, explained how it had been checked two days before and, like all other Gatso cameras, was recalibrated every 12 months by the Dutch manufacturers.

He revealed that there were 14 Gatso sites in North Wales but only nine cameras, which meant that although they flashed when motorists were speeding some cameras were not always recording.

Fining Moore pounds 75, chairman Peter Jones said: "We have no reason to believe to believe the machine was faulty."

Moore was also ordered to pay costs of pounds 265.