| I don\'t believe it .....
Police spent more than £10,000 of public money, and used a helicopter and a spotter plane, to convict a woman of driving while eating an apple. Officers spent months gathering evidence and building a vast case against 23-year-old Sarah McCaffery – and yesterday she was fined £60.
The nursery nurse was forced to attend court 10 times before the fine was finally handed out by magistrates at South Shields, Tyneside. Victims of crime groups and campaigners for taxpayers were furious at what they see as a scandalous waste of public money. Officers swung into action after McCaffery was spotted eating a golden delicious at the wheel of her Ford Ka.
She refused to accept a £30 on-the-spot fine, claiming she was in full control of the car, and said she would fight it in court. Astonishingly, police then called in a spotter plane to film her route, then repeated the exercise with a police helicopter. Officers then videoed the route from a squad car and used the footage as part of yesterday’s two and a half hour hearing.
The costs of the whole proceedings against McCaffery are estimated at £10,000. She said: "It is a joke they put so much effort into this. I couldn’t believe it when they brought all this video evidence into court. "You’d think they’d have better things to do. Aren’t there enough proper criminals for them to catch?" Her solicitor, Geoffrey Forrester, said: “This is all about trying to crush her because she is the one who stood up and said 'this is silly'."
A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: "As the defendant chose a court trial rather than accept a fixed penalty, we were obliged to gather all appropriate evidence to present our case."
Matthew Elliot of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "The thousands of pounds spent on this case could have been spent trying to tackle real criminals, the people who burgle our houses and steal our cars."
[Edited on 25-1-2005 by Henners]  | 
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