Salmon nets a hefty fine

FORMER Police and Crime Commissioner Christopher Salmon has been made to pay out £700 for motoring offences after a police pool car he was driving was found to have two illegal tyres.

Mr Salmon, who was defeated by Plaid Cymru’s Dafydd Llywelyn in the recent election, admitted the offences, which dated back to last October, by post on Monday (May 30).

The then Police and Crime Commissioner had been driving a police pool car, a silver BMW, when he suffered a blowout between Llandeilo and Carmarthen and requested assistance.

Two of the car’s tyres were found to have a sub-standard level of tread. This meant that an offence had potentially been committed, because the blowout was caused by a bald tyre.

The case was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), and lead investigator Talbinder Kaur’s report concluded Mr Salmon ‘may have committed a criminal offence’. Mr Kaur urged the Commission to consider referring Mr Salmon to the CPS.

Dyfed Powys Police Force also asked for the IPCC probe to investigate whether Mr Salmon complied with a duty to ‘obtain and preserve evidence’ considering that the vehicle’s tyres were changed shortly afterwards.

However, the IPCC stated that this was not part of their remit, and it formed no part of the investigation.

In a statement, Mr Salmon said: “On October 1 2015 I collected a shared pool car owned and maintained by Dyfed-Powys Police from the Force’s Headquarters. Before driving the car I did not check the condition of the tyres. The next day whilst I was driving the car there was a blow-out of a tyre.

“On subsequent examination the car was found to have two tyres that did not have sufficient tread to comply with the requirements of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations.

“I’m judged by the same laws as everyone else. I should have checked the tyres before using this shared car. I committed two offences of using a motor vehicle with defective tyres and I will accept the penalties imposed.”