TOPS NEWS September 2007

Four asylum seekers
were arrested on arrival in England in a lorry carrying Blair’s new £100,000 bulletproof BMW7.  The cost of guarding Mr Blair is estimated at £2m p.a.  

Bertrand des Pallieres, who runs a £170m hedge fund found his Maserati Cambiocorsa had been towed to a police pound after leaving it parked in Knightsbridge.  It cost him £5,000 to get the car back. 

Pensioner June Turnbell has been banned from tending a village flowerbed in Urchfont, Wiltshire, unless she displays 'men at work' signs, wears a fluorescent jacket and gets a look-out for approaching cars.     

Marius Varzar, a Romanian from Botosani confessed to a murder he did not commit in order to be given a ride to his village 100 miles away as he had no money.  

Speed camera fines rose to £114.6m last year.  London raised £9.42m.

A German farmer in Lauterbach, angry with police for trying to confiscate his tractor, rammed 3 of their cars with his tractor, making full use of its attached muck spreader and hydraulic fork and evaded capture for 7 hours before an elite unit managed to arrest him using 2 helicopters and an armoured car.  

Some NHS Scottish hospitals have reduced their parking charges after complaints from patients.

Thousands of people are paying fraudsters to sit their driving test for them according to the Driving Standards Agency.

Russia has unveiled plans for the world’s longest tunnel, under the Baring Strait, linking Europe with America via Siberia and Alaska.  103km long, costing

£33bn.

Nissan has developed alcohol-detection sensors which check odor, sweat and driver awareness, issuing a voice alert from the navigation system and locking the ignition if necessary.  Volvo has developed technology whereby drivers blow into a measuring unit in the seat belt before an engine can start.

Ji Fengshan, a Chinese man is hoping to get into the record books after pulling 4 cars roped together - with one finger.

The A682 to A65 in N Yorkshire is considered to be UK’s most dangerous road according to EuroRAP.

New parking spaces for people over the age of 65 are being tried out in 3 car parks in W. London.

Wolfgang Mueller, a tractor fan, drove his 44-year-old Massey Ferguson MF35 on a 700-mile pilgrimage to the factory where it was made - only to find it had been knocked down.

The Government has put a £150 tax on the recovery of stolen or broken-down vehicles.  Police will charge £20 a day for storing recovered vehicles.

Notts County Council has applied for an injunction to prevent 5 or more vehicles from “congregating, driving in convoy, or racing” in the County.

More than 40,000 sets of number plates were stolen in 2006.  The DVLA is considering forcing all the UK’s 1.3m motorcycles to have plates fitted with electronic tags.

Volvo has unveiled the world's first plug-in-and-go hybrid vehicle which can be charged from any household socket, then switched to it’s 1.6 litre petrol engine when the battery runs low. It will travel 62 miles for under £1 after a 3-hour charge from the mains, has a top speed of 100mph and acceleration of 0- 62mph in 9 sec. The petrol engine cuts in automatically when 70% of the battery power has been used up.

The amount of business generated annually in France by Classic Cars amounts to £2bn.

A new speed camera has been made which is thought to be vandal-proof.  12ft high with 4 digital cameras monitoring 4 lanes at once and able to take pictures of cars from the front and back.  They do not flash so the motorist does not know he has been caught.

Launched at the Frankfurt motorshow was the latest version of the Bugatti Pur Sang edition.  Only 5 will be made.  Lamborghini showed their 20 only version of the Murciélago at €1m + tax – all have been sold!

Tim Brady has been jailed for 10 weeks after being caught on the A420 in a borrowed Porsche 911 at 172mph.

Parking attendants (civil enforcement officers) could soon be able to hand out on-the-spot fines if they catch anyone dropping litter. 

Abridged version of newsletter sent to members by Trisha Pilkington