AU - Speed camera manual taken off website

THE Victorian Government has been accused of censoring information that might help drivers challenge speeding fines.

An internet operator has removed a roadside speed camera operator's manual from his popular website after he was threatened with legal action.

The man, who wants to be identified only as Marty, publicised the manual to help drivers who believed they were not speeding.

It contains sensitive information on speed camera set-ups and has been successfully used before in court cases to challenge speeding fines.

Within three days of the information appearing on the website, Marty was tracked down by a legal firm acting on behalf of the Justice Department.

A department official then contacted Marty and said the manual was copyrighted and was not to be seen by the public.

"I removed the information immediately," Marty told the Herald Sun.

"It sounded like they were getting all their guns together and getting ready to hit me with a lawsuit.

"They were hunting for me, they found me, and the intimation was that if I didn't want to play

ball that I was in serious legal trouble."

The father of three, a former police officer and paramedic, said he was recovering from a serious back injury and had limited resources.

"They've got deep, deep pockets filled with speed camera cash and I can't take them on," he said.

In August, the Herald Sun reported that the same roadside speed camera operator's manual was used by motorist John King to prove he wasn't speeding.

Mr King won the David-and-Goliath battle after fighting to get access to the manual through Freedom of Information.

Mr King's expert witness, Claus Salger, said he was not surprised by the department's actions.

"Nobody cares about copyright once a document is available through Freedom of Information," Mr Salger said.

"If this manual was freely available through the internet the number of court challenges would go up and they don't want that."

Marty said he planned to charge a small fee to cover printing and postage.

He described the manual as "pure gold" because it contained information on how reflections can cause an incorrect radar readings and photographs of situations where a driver should not be booked.

"Some of the information was amazing. The photographs showing the correct and incorrect positions of vehicles would be very useful," he said.

"This is the gospel and they don't want to be flooded with people challenging cases and citing paragraph such and such to back up their case."

A spokesman for the department denied that it wanted to stop the public obtaining evidence that would encourage challenges.

"The reason this man was contacted was because he was breaking the law by selling a Crown document," the spokesman said.