Solicitor David Kirwan says the police need to face the music on car radio case

THIS week, Kirwans Solicitors successfully argued for the discontinuation of the case against Wirral driver Chris Cureton, who was fined £30 for reportedly playing his car stereo too loudly.

Mr Cureton is not some boy racer with a souped-up radio system blasting out from his vehicle.

He’s a hard working dad who was simply enjoying some music on his way home from work.

So why was he stopped? What was the public interest? And was it a good use of police time?

Clearly not, as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) conceded in their letter of discontinuance that the pursuit of the case was “not in the public interest”.

But why did the case even get this far?

Police have been accused in the past of unfairly targeting drivers in order to boost their crime figures.

Was my client a victim of such behaviour? Officially, we will never know. But Merseyside Police has confirmed it is now “reviewing” its procedures.

What we do know is that this whole sorry episode put an extra strain on the already stretched resources of our police, the CPS and the courts.

In short, it was a waste of taxpayer’s money. And who was to blame? The over-zealous officer desperate to make an arrest.

Common sense needs to prevail, or there will be an increase in the calls for vetting of prosecutions by the police.