NORTH Wales Police refuse to say how many motorists were let off speeding tickets. They claim it would be too costly to find out, and it would be against the public interest to say which excuses worked. The denial came after a request was made under the Freedom of Information Act. And it followed an earlier revelation 101 police officers were caught speeding while not responding to 999 calls. Only six were prosecuted, the other 95 were going fast for their duties. In the 12 months until August 65,000 drivers were caught by Arrive Alive cameras, raising £3.9m in fines. The force was asked subsequently how many drivers caught speeding put forward mitigating circumstances in an appeal, and how many were successful in getting cases dropped. But the reply states: "If a member of the public put forward mitigation in correspondence it would be held on file and each case file would have to be searched manually." It was estimated that to search one month's records would take about 133 hours at £25 an hour. Nigel Humphries of the Association of British Drivers said it was nonsense to suggest they didn't know how many motorists were let off. "It's a question of simple subtraction - by taking away the number of tickets issued from those fined." | 
