Some types of camera are approved by the home office/home secretary for unattended operation - Gatso, Specs etc. Unless the device being used has such an approval then it can only be used as secondary evidence - to back up the expert opinion of a police officer that you were speeding.
If it goes to court, then the evidence from the officer invariably reads "I formed the opinion that the vehicle was speeding, and this was verified by the subsequent reading from the camera device." the Primary evidence is the opinion of the officer who is an expert witness being a highly trained as a traffic officer, and this is backed up by the secondary evidence from the camera device.
What they're not supposed to do is just point the laser/radar out the window and ping every car as it comes into view. Where is the expert opinion in that? And if the radar/laser isn't on the home office stand alone list approved then it can't be used as primary evidence.
Trouble is you won't get to know about any of this until/unless you plead not guilty and go to court. If you just plead guilty to the £100/3 points fixed penalty notice then you will never know if they actually had any admissible evidence against you.
"with my certified and calibrated eyeballs....." 
Ron.
Yup. Case law states that the required level of proof on most normal roads is the expert opinion of two police officers, or one officer and a calibrated measurement device. On a motorway (aka Special Road)the law only requires the expert opinion of one officer.
You have to remember that most/all the speeding laws were first drafted long before there were any portable speed measuring devices so the only way of enforcing them was with expert opinion. So yes calibrated eyeballs.
Author
Topic: Speed Camera Vans (Read 5541 times)