were planning an easy ride!Our van was stopped driving up the motorway in Scotland by Strathclyde police T division (support division -traffic).
They'd been following for a while and gave their reason as 'curiosity'.
They followed us for about ten miles and we still hadn't entered their
patch by the time they stopped us.
Once they'd stopped us, they looked for reasons to get the driver and van
off the road. A sniffer dog van was nearby and stopped but didn't search
the van - too packed I suppose. The plan seemed to be to stop the van,
hold the driver for long enough for the MOT inspectors to arrive. Seems
they want to get drivers and vans off the road. Though the van looked a
bit 'unsusual', we reckon they knew the G8 connection before they even
flagged us down. They were following for long enough to chat to the DVLA
and Met to fish for info.
When the driver was arrested, they held him over the weekend and brought London political cops (Special branch? NCIS? > FIT? > >we don't know) down from Glasgow. The local cops were well chuffed at geting the first G8 arrest in, thought they'd arrested the big man and everything.
So this message is just to warn you. It's not too early, the police (local
police most likely) have got their eyes out for vans, and (we guess) want
to take out the drivers too. Though there's a lot of vans on the motorway,
think - does yours stand out? If pulled, they'll look for the G8
connection and give it a better going over than the last time it was
MOT'd. If everything is above board, make sure you're carrying the MOT
and insurance - we hadn't got the cover note through, which was all they
held us on. Probably the best plan is to take small roads through
Scotland - motorways have number plate recognition cameras and traffic
cops, and particularly - are the expected route for entering Scotland from
England.
Good luck
Comments
Display the following 18 comments