North Wales Police ignores guidelines on visors

North Wales Police is ignoring national guidelines by fining riders for wearing tinted visors in daylight.

The tactic is helping the force prosecute more of the 400 motorcyclists it stops every summer weekend.

Guidelines from the Association of Chief Police Officers clearly state riders should not face prosecution over tinted visors in daylight hours. But riders in North Wales have been fined on the spot despite sunny conditions and the fact they were also carrying spare clear visors.

MCN reader Darren Farnden, 43, revealed: “It was a glorious sunny day. Seven of us went past a parked police car. As we stopped at a junction we heard a siren wailing and looked to see the copper come tearing up with lights ablaze, gesturing to us and shouting aggressively for us to pull over.

“He pulled us together and said: ’I’ve stopped you because I noticed some of you are wearing dark visors.’ He said the offence carried a £30 fine. Two riders had clear visors and offered to put these on but he said it made no difference because they’d already committed the offence.

“Eventually he was persuaded to issue one ticket instead of three so the riders could ‘split the fine between them’. Clearly he’d been tasked to stop bikers over visors.”
The marketing executive and friends were stopped on July 25 on the A470 near Llanrwst. 

North Wales Police said: “It is not appropriate to enter into a discussion about individual cases in a public forum.”

MCN is staging a campaign to reclaim the region for motorcyclists from heavy-handed police. Find details here: www.motorcyclenews.com/reclaimwales