Police worker in speeding ticket office is jailed for 10 months for deleting video that showed him doing 37mph in 30 zone while wearing a cowboy hat
- Martin Gorst, 55, removed video evidence and altered computer records
- He and his wife avoided penalties for speeding offences in 2015 and last year
- The systems administrator pleaded guilty to trying to pervert course of justice
- He was sentenced to ten months for committing ‘two very serious offences’
A police worker in a speeding ticket office was today jailed for 10 months for deleting video evidence that showed him doing 37mph in a 30 zone while wearing a cowboy hat.
Martin Gorst, 55, removed video evidence and altered computer records so he and his wife could avoid penalties for speeding offences in January 2015 and between October 30 and November 5 last year.
The systems administrator, who worked for North Wales Police for 16 years in the central ticket office at St Asaph, has now pleaded guilty to trying to pervert the course of justice.
Mold Crown Court heard that the offences came to light when a speed camera van caught Gorst driving at 37mph in a 30 zone while wearing a cowboy hat.
Martin Gorst (pictured at Mold Crown Court for sentencing), 55, removed video evidence and altered computer records so he and his wife could avoid penalties for speeding offences in January 2015 and between October 30 and November 5 last year
The officer in the van recognised Gorst but found that the recording had been wiped on November 1 and replaced with other footage.
Further inquiries revealed that the defendant had also altered computer records to help his wife Angela get away with another speeding offence committed several years earlier.
Gorst, of Lon Cwybr, Rhuddlan, North Wales, was sentenced to ten months for committing ‘two very serious offences which strike at the very heart of our system of justice’.
Judge Rhys Rowlands said that Gorst, who had resigned, had taken advantage of his position in a ‘quite cynical breach’ – adding that an ‘element of deterrence’ was called for.
‘As an employee of the police you were trusted with access to sensitive information and expected to carry out your work in a diligent and trustworthy fashion,’ the judge said.
Gorst (left) arriving with his wife, Angela at Mold crown court for sentencing. A judge heard that Gorst had wanted to lessen his wife’s distress after his stepdaughter died on Christmas Day in 2014 – with her funeral held the day before the 2015 offence
‘Having got away with it in 2015 you did it again last year, no doubt in your own mind being confident you would get away with it a second time. Such behaviour can only be viewed as calculated.’
Judge Rowlands added: ‘These offences are far too serious to be dealt with by anything other than an immediate prison sentence.’
Gorst had been a member of a development group for the fixed penalty processing systems with responsibility for data protection.
Two other drivers also escaped enforcement action for speeding because of his behaviour last year.
Prosecuting, Andrew Green said Gorst had been chairman of a national development group for fixed penalty processing systems.
Roger Brown, defending, said what happened had been ‘madness’, pointing to Gorst’s previously clean driving licence.
‘There was really no reason for him doing this. His main concern was he didn’t want his wife to discover this because she would have become very upset,’ Mr Brown told court.
Mold Crown Court also heard that Gorst had wanted to lessen his wife’s distress after his stepdaughter died on Christmas Day in 2014 – with her funeral held the day before the 2015 offence.
‘There’s no suggestion she knew anything about this at all,’ Mr Brown said. ‘It was entirely his doing.’