Protests at fast fines trial
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• A human rights lawyer has written to the Lord Chancellor's Office claiming the recent decision to fast-track foreign operators through the courts might be illegal.
Last week it emerged that the Vehicle Inspectorate and Warwickshire Police are running a pilot project to take foreign hauliers falling foul of roadside checks straight to a magistrate's court.
In one recent check on the M40; several foreign drivers who were found to have broken the hours' rules were immediately taken before Leamington Spa Magistrates who imposed several large fines. UK drivers caught in the same check face court appearances at a later date.
Stephen Jackobi from Fair Trials Abroad warns that this two-pronged approach amounts to discrimination under the European Union Convention on Human Rights.
it is completely unreasonable to give a driver ten minutes to come up with a defence lawyer," he says. "Access to an interpreter to translate court proceedings is a fundamental human right enshrined in the legislation."
A spokeswoman for the VI stresses the scheme is just a pilot and is not national policy. She adds that it complies with the Human Rights Act: "All drivers have access to an interpreter both at the roadside and in court. They are assigned a duty solicitor and all summonses are issued in bath English and the language of the driver concerned. At no stage are they told that they are under arrest"