'Harassed' Porsche owner tocomplain to Home Secretary

A BUSINESSMAN is planning to complain to Home Secretary Theresa May after police seized his 120,000 Porsche car but allowed him to travel with the recovery driver and immediately claim it back.

John Dalby claims police are using a law designed to stop hooligans doing noisy burn outs to harass him after he bought the powerful GT3 RS supercar.

North Yorkshire Police said there had been a complaint from another motorist before the car was seized last weekend under section 59 of the Road Traffic Act.

But Mr Dalby, who lives near Harrogate, believes he was singled out because his car is so distinctive – and claims the officer involved confirmed it by saying “if I had been driving a less conspicuous vehicle, a Ford Fiesta maybe, then maybe I wouldn’t get as much attention”.

He says the “most ridiculous part” was that when the car was seized, he went with the recovery truck to Harrogate, paid the 150 recovery charge and was back home 40 minutes after setting out.

He said: “When I had my Land Rover stolen from my paddock several years ago, no police officer deemed it a serious enough crime to pay a visit. We were just given a crime reference number.

“When our garage was broken into some years before that, again no visit.

“Yet if I should be driving a vehicle that stands out from the normal type of car on the roads, I am the subject of unfair and unjust attention from the police.”

The businessman, who runs a cleaning company, started having problems with police in May after adding private number plates and stripes to the Porsche and a second supercar, a BMW M3.

In the most recent incident police turned up at his home after he passed them on the Boroughbridge bypass and told him he must have been speeding because he got home before they did.

Mr Dalby says they were outside their vehicles, on the opposite side of the road, and would have had to go back down the road and come back round the roundabout to follow him.

Mr Dalby said he was insistent the matter go to court but the police left without leaving any written evidence the incident had occurred.

He says he will now pursue the matter with a formal complaint and a letter to Home Secretary Theresa May.

He said: “It’s only since I started buying really flash supercars that have stripes and private number plates that the police have decided to have a go – but this one takes the biscuit.

A police spokesman said: “While it is inappropriate to comment on individual cases, traffic officers from North Yorkshire Police’s Roads Policing Group deal firmly but fairly with all motorists who break the law, no matter what make or model of vehicle they are driving.”