UK Edition
Speed camera jammers sold online as a way to outwit the police
Road safety campaigners have called on the Government to ban sales of laser jammers that stop speed cameras catching dangerous drivers after it emerged they are being promoted on Amazon and eBay as a way to outwit police.
Adverts promoting the cloaking devices as a way to avoid speeding fines have featured on the online retailers with reviewers boasting how they have fooled traffic officers, The Telegraph can reveal.
Last night, the charity Brake called for a crackdown on the sale of the “morally reprehensible” units that can scramble speed camera beams.
Timothy Hill, a 67-year-old businessman, was jailed last week for eight months and banned from driving for a year for perverting the course of justice after using a jammer in his Land Rover.
While it is not against the law to sell the lasers that also work as parking devices, it is illegal for motorist to use them to prevent police gathering information on a vehicle’s speed.
However, online sales have promoted the way they can interfere with police mobile speed cameras.
In an advert on Amazon, a seller said “obviously some naughty people use them as a way of defeating laser guns”, adding that its device had “greater jamming capability”.
A customer gave it a five star review as far back as 2015 saying there was “nothing more satisfying” than preventing the “traffic filth” - a derogatory reference to police - from fining him for speeding. He added that it had prevented him getting “three lots of three points” on his driving license. Another motorist gave it five stars saying it had “saved my licence more than once”.
On eBay, a £299 “laser diffuser” was being promoted for its ability to “fire back the same frequency and pulse rate thereby confusing the mobile laser speed camera equipment… effectively preventing it from taking a speed reading of your vehicle”. However, the seller added that it was not being sold as a laser jammer.
A number of the devices were available on eBay from both America and Australia.
Joshua Harris, of the road safety charity, Brake, said: “It is shocking to see laser jammers being advertised and used to pervert the course of justice and allow drivers to avoid being caught speeding.
“Breaking the speed limit is extremely dangerous and puts innocent lives at risk and those who do so deserve to be caught and punished. We urge the Government to crackdown on the sale of these morally reprehensible devices and ensure our roads are kept safe of dangerous drivers.”
Edmund King, AA president, also called for them to “outlawed” adding that motorists should focus on the road “rather than use dubious devices to pervert the course of justice … and beat the law”.
Although the Advertising Standards Authority would not comment on specific cases, its general advice on marketing such apparatus states that retailers “should not not encourage illegal or irresponsible driving as this would fall foul of our rules on social responsibility”.
A Department for Transport spokesman said ministers were looking at ways of “strengthening the law even further to help us catch those seeking to evade justice”.
A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman said speed cameras serve as a deterrent as well as a way to catch speeding motorists, adding that police would always attempt to capture those using laser jammers.
An eBay spokesman said: “We have banned the sale of these types of items on our site, and our policies in this area are stricter than UK law requires. Listings that don’t comply with our policies will be removed.”
Amazon declined to comment. However, the customers’ comments about using the device to stop police taking a reading of their cars' speeds have been removed.