Greater Manchester Police recognised that there were a growing number of people who were using criminal means to avoid their responsibilities in relation to offences detected by safety cameras. People who were usually law-abiding drivers were going to extreme lengths to avoid a fixed penalty of £60 and an endorsement of 3 points on their licence.

To combat this Operation Cheetah was brought into being in March 2005.

Operation Cheetah consists of 1 Police Sergeant and usually 3-4 Police Officers.

Operation Cheetah's aims

• To improve road safety on Greater Manchester's road
• To prevent otherwise law abiding motorists being drawn into criminality
• To identify when false or misleading information is provided to the Central Ticket Office in relation to requests to provide driver information

• Detect offences

How Operation Cheetah achieves this

• Prevent otherwise law abiding motorists being drawn into committing criminal offence - a leaflet is enclosed with all Notice Of Intention Prosecution/S172 requests and highlights some of the more commonly used scams
• Prosecution/Arrest of offenders
• To deal with enquiries from the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to offences the Central Ticket Office are dealing with

• To provide support for the Central Ticket Office staff

How do motorists become criminals?

• A delibrate decision to try and avoid prosecution at all costs
• Bad advice, either by word of mouth:- " I said it was someone who was visiting me from abroad and the ticket was just cancelled"
• The World Wide Web, the internet

There are a variety of forums/websites that provide information on how to avoid your responsibilities in relation to motoring offences, some are perfectly legitimate and seek to exploit breeches of procedure or points of law. There are others that offer more dubious advice.

Commonly used scams in response to a request to provide driver information

• Falsely nominating a fictitious/real person from a foreign country
• Nominating a person at an address that does not exist or is derelict
• Nominating a fictitous person at a genuine address
• Falsely nominating a real person
• Stating the cehicle was on a test drive and they have no details of the driver (Although the vehicle has never been advertised for sale and they still own it)
• Claiming the vehicle has been cloned
• Claiming that it could be one of several people who were driving at the time and you dont know who it was
• Having a wife/husband or partner admit to being the driver when it was you
• Nominating an elderly relative who still holds a licence but doesnt drive anymore
• Nominating a deceased person

Of course we do realise that some of these explanations can be genuine or legitimate defences to offences.

The offences Operation Cheetah investigates

• Conspiracy to Pervert/Perverting the Course of Justice (Indictable only Theoretical punishment life imprisonment dependency on substantive offence. 10 years in the case of the offences Operation Cheetah deals with)
• S5b Perjury Act 1911 (Triable either way punishable with a fine or up to 2 years Imprisonment)
• A variety of associated offences:- TWOC, Dangerous Driving, Disqualified Driving, Driving licence/Insurance offences

Motorists often mistakenly believe that if their deception is discovered they will still only be liable to be prosecuted for the speeding ticket or traffic signal offence.

They fail to realise that they have made a massive leap from either a fine or fixed penalty and points on their licence to posssibly being stood before a Judge/Magistrate and receiving a prison sentence and all the life alterings things that are associated with it.

In December 2007 Greater Manchester Police Operation Cheetah was awarded the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for recognising achievement and innovations which will improve road safety.