Speed gun jammers sold over internet
From The West Australian
By Rania Ghandour and Simon Penn
November 11, 2005
A 25-year-old Perth
entrepreneur who sells an outlawed device which scrambles police hand-held
laser speed guns says he is not doing anything wrong and is not responsible
for people who use them illegally.
Sean Hettich, of
Success, said he was filling a gap in the market by selling radar
detectors, which are legal only in WA, and the just-released laser
jammers, which are illegal to use throughout Australia.
"Eighty per
cent of my business comes from the Eastern States, even though it's
illegal and they are well aware of the risks and penalties,"
he said.
He said they were
not illegal to sell yet and he would continue to sell them until the
law changed.
The online store
Mr. Hettich set up, www.dontgetcaught.com.au, has sold more than 100
radar detectors since opening six months ago. Laser jammers have been
on the market for a little over a week, with only one sold so far.
Insp. Neil Royle,
operations manager of police traffic enforcement, said laser jammers
worked by dispersing the laser beam on police hand-held speed guns,
affecting the equipment and showing an error reading, alerting police
to the use of the jammer.
"The user
would be charged with hindering police and we would more than likely
apply to the court to confiscate the jammer," he said.
Insp. Royle said
the new jammer worked only with hand-held speed guns and no one had
been charged with using one so far. They did not detect Multanovas.
"You've got
to ask yourself why people would use them in the first place. It's
to avoid detection of an offence and we'll act accordingly on that,"
he said.
Road Safety Council
chairman Grant Dorrington said using any devices which helped avoid
speeding tickets was totally irresponsible and called for a ban on
all such devices.
"We're spending
millions to educate drivers that speed kills," he said. "They're
saying, 'Do what you want and if you buy this thing you can make sure
you don't get caught'."
Police Minister
Michelle Roberts said the Government would move to change the law
to make it clear the devices were illegal.
"As I understand
it the laser technology is new technology and for the first time that's
impacting on hand-held radar detectors so we need to move to ban that,"
she said. She admitted it was unlikely new laws could be introduced
until next year.
