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Assistant Chief Constable Steve Thomas is a man you're going to be hearing a lot about over the months and years ahead. If I've got anything to do with it, his name and grinning mugshot will be appearing in newspapers and magazines, court rooms, political meetings, road safety conferences and even at the side of the road when cops pull over drivers for trivial and irrelevant speeding misdemeanours.

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By Mike Rutherford

12th May 2004

They don't come much worse than Steve Thomas. He's a senior officer who's paid to enforce traffic laws and says, among other things, that: "It's everyone's duty to drive safely and at reasonable speed at all times." Everyone, that is, except him.

We have at least one unelected Government minister telling us that we're criminals if we speed. And we often hear cops like Steve Thomas banging on about the evils of straying over the 70mph limit by the tiniest of margins. The Home Office employs this Assistant Chief Constable, who didn't just stray over 70, 80 or even 90mph. No, he opted for 104mph. Does this make him a criminal, too - can criminals be senior cops?

If he's got a mind, what on earth was going through it? Steve Thomas might not have known precisely how much more than the official limit he was doing, but even he would (or should) have realised he was doing over 100mph and at the very least he knew he was committing a very serious offence which, in his position, he simply cannot do.

I'm all for sensible, mature, experienced drivers in well maintained cars deciding to exceed some of the often outdated speed limit signs at certain times of the day. Indeed, I believe that's something every one of us does now and then, cops included. But I can't remember the last time I was even tempted to pass 100mph on a motorway in Britain, even when I've been driving a high-performance machine capable of nearer 200mph.

I make no apologies for trotting out the old clich΃©s as they're entirely appropriate. He has a 'do as I say, not as I do' approach to life. He knows how not to lead by example, and he's a disgrace to the Greater Manchester police force. And on a much wider scale, his behaviour has not only undermined the credibility of police officers everywhere, but also thrown the entire police, legal and court system into disrepute.

Just as you can't be a high-ranking murder cop who kills someone, a drugs cop who deals or a fraud cop who fiddles the books, you surely can't be an anti-speeding traffic cop who does 104mph. How he hasn't been banned from driving, suspended from duty or kicked out of the force I don't know. It's scandalous that he'll continue lecturing to and hunting down drivers who face fines for committing offences far less serious than his.

Next time you're pulled over or hear the police banging on about the evils of speeding, remind them of Assistant Chief Constable Steve Thomas. You might not escape a fine, but you'll feel a great deal better for ramming home the point that those who run the system are no better, and in the case of the Manchester cop, far worse than the rest of us. Clearly, the law's an ass - namely Ass. Ch. Const. Steve Thomas.