Just remembered a similar story that happened to a French friend of mine in Paris. He was on in scooter heading home at 2am on a Sunday morning. At a roundabout he's pursued and told to stop by guys on motorbikes, he goes faster and tries to flee, as far as he's concerned those guys are out to mug him. They make him fall, he breaks his arm and it turns out that they were police in civilian clothes, stopping him for no real reason... They wanted to arrest him, he protested and knew his rights etc. + his dad was a police officer. I think he must have got compensation but at the end of the day he got really frightened and broke his arm and scooter.

Don't go with the initial advise given to you by the Duty Solicitor THEY WORK FOR FOR THE CPS! Seek advice from an independent source. If you are at a loss try these guys:

GANI solicitors 07741 126 150

Good luck

Yep, this is my approach towards the police when cycling, unless it is comprehensively obvious to the police that I have seen them (direct eye contact would qualify) I will go on my way and not stop or turn around - they are hardly going to call in the SWAT team and helicopters for someone who might have gone through a red light.

If a policeman on a bicycle radioed in to a busy overworked metropolitan police control centre with "I have just seen a cyclist go through a red light - can we get a couple of cars down here to search the area and track him down" - he would be laughed at.

Of course if I knew that I would be dealt with in a fair and reasonable way I would be inclined to stop at the first instance, but previous experience with the police tells me to let them find some other bloke to take out the day's frustrations on.

I think the French bloke in the OP was a little stupid in more than one way, he should have simply cycled off (without breaking the law) ignoring the policeman and forgot about the whole thing, quite why, after fleeing from a (cycling/mobile) policeman, you would start riding on the pavement puzzles me - and when the policeman caught up, that really isn't the time to break for freedom, before that point you could have feigned ignorance but when you have an officer grabbing at you the game's over.

When I was around 15- 16 - I came back from a party somewhere in Notting Hill, I lived in Paddington at the time and my route took me through St Mary's Church (on Paddington Green). It must have been 1 or 2 am, a bitterly cold Winter's night, silent, not a single soul on the streets - but as I passed through St Mary's almost pitch black graveyard I suddenly noticed a bloke sat on a bench, just ahead on the path that went through the grave yard - just staring at me - I almost shat myself, but I continued to walk towards him (hoping at the time he doesn't whip his cock out and stab me with a knife).

When I was around 3 or 4 feet passed him - he lunged out to grab me, shouting 'STOP!' - I nearly jumped out of my fucking skin and of course legged it, my heart was in my throat as I ran about as fast as my legs would allow and was absolutely terrified, this was proper 'graveyard bum rape and stabbed in the eyes' territory, this bloke (in his 30's 40's I can't be too sure now) was pounding after me, as far as I was concerned I was running for my life, he eventually caught up and grabbed my arm taking me down on to the floor - it was only then that he said I was a fucking idiot for running from the police. No real injuries, just grazed hands and after a good sound telling off and a lecture on how to conduct myself (from some cunt who chases children through graveyards) I was allowed to go.

!!!

The police do some incredible work, stuff I could not handle, and on a daily basis, to be honest without a working police force we would be in a lot of trouble - but the nature of assigning power to individuals over other members of society will always bring with it a percentage of tossers who will enjoy abusing that power.

If I'm a policeman on a bicycles, and after shouting "STOP!", I'd assumed the cyclist who tried to getaway in the most sporadic manner ever is riding a stolen bicycles or committed a crime nearby.

what a stupid codswallop to sped away from the police!

:D

I think the problem lays in the fact that your mate had the audasity to beat him away from the lights. Its the same when they are out in cars. They drive at 27mph in a 30 zone waiting to see if anyone has the nerve to overtake them. All petty shit really but sometimes you have to play their games or get loads of grief. He is probably pissed about being made to ride a slow, crap bike and carry 25 kgs of shit on his waist belt. Do these coppers choose to join the bike squad or is it a punishment given to them? Not many of them look like riders.

Just because your only experience of france is buying 20 cases of stella on a day trip to calais.
Arent we above these sort of comments?

What? Are you retarded? If you are going to get offended by my generalisation, accurate though it may be, don't reply with another generalisation. It just makes you look stupid.

Many years ago a mate of mine had a motorbicycle that was a complete shed. He used it to commute to work from south east London to just off Old St. This shed was not only neglected mechanically (but refused to die) but legally as well, tax and MOT were but a distant memory. One day when coming over London Bridge this mate was using a bus lane to filter to the front of the traffic. A WPC in her little plastic box stepped out into the road and signaled for him to stop. Suddenly aware of his lack of legality he panicked and rode around her. The light in front was red, so now committed he filled his pants and hoofed it through the red as the road was completely clear. He realised that he now needed to get away fairly sharpish but had cleverly forgotten about police radios. Now riding enthusiastically towards Liverpool St Station another copper leaps into the road signaling for him to stop. He dinks around and carries straight on to the outer edge of The Ring of Steel. The final copper in plastic box is waiting. Same thing again. My mate's pants are now understandably bursting at the seams. He dumps the bike around the corner out of view behind a parked van, seconds later two bike cops appear threading their way through traffic at speed looking left and right. My mate has taken his crash helmet off and shoved it in his bag. He's walking towards work where he consumes about 20 ciggys in 10 minutes. There's more to it but suffice to say my mate never got caught. Fortunately the bike wasn't registered in his name. Funnily enough he's been really sharp about keeping his tax and MOT up to date since then.

Unfortunately for the guy in this case, City are probably the least overworked and busy force in the country, with the possible exception of the Outer Hebridean police authority.

@ VanUden: Was he French?

@teenslain - nope not French but just as fond of good food.

French are a nation of whingers, true, I'm French I know.
But at least we don't boil our vegetables and we whinge in sexy accents.
:)

alright thanks... i read it in the wrong way until VeeVee kindly re-interpreted the message for me. thanks to both of you.