Newton Abbott Magistrates Court recently fined 2 Qatari service personnel, who were based at Britannia Royal Naval College, after they committed a total of 25 speeding offences between them in the space of one month.
Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), commonly known as Dartmouth, is the naval academy of the United Kingdom and the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy.
Foreign Navies often send their trainee officers to BRNC as it is renown for its impeccable training and extremely high standards.
Al-Ishaq was fined £7810, ordered to pay £77 victim surcharge and £85 costs, given 61 points and disqualified from driving for 4 years, the second more ‘lenient’ sentence given to Al-Mahmoud was only £4810, ordered to pay £77 victim surcharge and £85 costs, 38 points and disqualified from driving for four years.
On 5th June 2018 the Peninsula Road Safety Partnership, captured 2 internationally registered Black Mercedes AMG sportscars exceeding the speed limit on the A385 Ashburton Road, coming out of Totnes.
There quickly followed a series of offences in Plymouth, with one driver, Tameem Mohammed
In total 15 offences were committed by the officer cadets.
The second Mercedes, driven by Ahmed
It was soon established that the vehicles had been imported directly from Qatar after enquiries were made by various agencies into the registration details of the cars.
Police National Computer m
The vehicles were stopped in the West Midlands and London by the police and initial addresses provided proved to be out of date or false.
Subsequent enquiries between the Ministry of Defence in London and the Qatar Embassy, resulted in both drivers being identified as international students at Britannia Royal Naval College.
A statement by the
‘The Commanding Officers at Britannia Royal Naval College cannot be faulted in the assistance they provided the Police, it was one of the first cases the new No Excuse Team became involved in, full access was provided and all of the 25 Notices of Intended Prosecution were hand served on the 2 International Naval Officers.
‘The Royal Navy also dealt with both officers under their own disciplinary code.
‘Both students accepted their Notices, but then went down the ‘Loop Hole’ lawyer route employing the services of a London firm specialising in such issues.
‘Neither turned up for the first court hearing so confident
‘Despite their not guilty pleas, both were found guilty in the absence, and sentencing was adjourned from Bodmin
‘Both were again instructed by the Court to attend, but choose not to, a decision they may now regret given the severity of their fines and disqualification period’.
Marcus Laine, the Operations M
”This investigation demonstrates that it does not matter where you are from, how privileged a background you may come from, you are not above the law.
“The fines, points and disqualification periods imposed by the Magistrates absolutely reflects the dim view taken by the bench and the partnership towards excessive and persistent speeders”.
All of the roads where these offences have taken place have had serious and fatal collisions in the past, according to the Peninsula Road Safety Partnership.
A spokesperson for the PRSP continued:
‘Driving through Plymouth City Centre and in particular Royal parade at almost twice the speed limit, any member of the public that had been involved in a collision with this pair would have most likely resulted in a death.
‘Had we not identified them as quickly as we did and let it be known that such driving behaviour would not be tolerated, I’m sure we would have been dealing with at least one fatality, either the drivers or an innocent member of the public.
‘We would like to thank the Royal Navy for their exemplary assistance in this matter, even post-conviction the Commanding Offices of Britannia Naval College have offered their assistance to the Court with regard to fine correspondence and ensuring it reaches its intended destination, now that the students are no longer at the College’.
If you have a story, video or one-off blog that you would like to share with us, then you can contact our team of former emergency services & armed forces personnel either through our Facebook page, via Twitter ( @ES_News_ ) or you can contact us via email: contact@emergency-services.news
If you run or manage a ‘job’ social media account and you would like us to share one of your stories then send us a tweet or a message!
If you would like to write an article that you would like us to share (it can be about anything to do with the emergency services / NHS) whether you serve in the emergency services / NHS or whether you are a member of the public who has had a good experience with the emergency services, then feel free to contact our team; anonymously if you prefer.
We are proud to act as a voice for the emergency services, armed forces & health service, with over 500,000 people visiting our website each month.
Before you go...
WE NEED YOUR HELP.Here at Emergency Services News, we aim to tell you stories that the mainstream media are not interested in reporting. Whilst the MSM love to berate and ridicule the emergency services, who is there to report on the realities of serving on the front line?
Emergency Services News is currently a loss-making entity. But our team of volunteers, all former emergency services personnel, do not do it for the money.
We do it because we are sick and tired of the mainstream media constantly trying to undermine the men and women who put their lives on the line to keep you and your family safe.
How many MSM journalists who speak ill of the emergency services have actually dared to don the uniform and risk their own lives to save the life of a complete stranger? If you would like to help back our mission of reporting on fact-based news, then please consider helping to support us financially.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
Should have been further prosecuted for being in contempt of court, confiscation of the cars and then deported, as well as receiving their fines.