A TOP-LEVEL sales manager will learn on Tuesday whether he must return to jail for using a laser jamming device at a notorious speeding hotspot.

North Yorkshire Police are investigating at least four more people for similar offences, York Crown Court heard on Monday.

Ms Hancock said Ben Kitto was doing 81.9 mph to 91 mph on the 70 mph A64 dual carriageway stretch at Whitwell-on-the-Hill between York and Scarborough when a police employee used a speed detection laser gun on his BMW 635D.

Despite three attempts the employee was unable to record Kitto’s speed because the salesman had a laser jamming device fitted to his numberplate which included a beeping warning whenever it was activated by a police speed gun.

“It did its job and it worked and therefore the police were unable to gauge the speed the defendant was using the ‘usual way’,” said Ms Hancock.

Kitto told police he knew it was illegal to use the laser jammer but thought he would only get a stern warning if caught. He hadn’t appreciated how serious the matter was, said Ms Hancock.

According to defence barrister Philip Morris, more than 100 people have been caught speeding on the same stretch of the A64 already this year.

Ms Hancock said Kitto braked down to 53 mph after the jamming device sounded. But from the error messages on the gun, police realised what he had done and prosecuted him. They also videoed his car and from that a police expert worked out his top speed and from films from his dashcam calculated that he had been speeding on nine other occasions.

Last night, Kitto was in Hull Prison while Judge Andrew Stubbs QC decided what sentence he should receive after the national sales manager for a major telecommunications company, who lives in Stepney Road, Scarborough, admitted perverting the course of justice and speeding.

York Press:

“I am remanding you in custody overnight so that you are under no illusion as to the seriousness of your position,” the judge told him late yesterday afternoon. He ordered the jamming equipment to be destroyed.

Mr Morris said Kitto drove 40,000 miles a year in his job, all over the country. If he was jailed, he would lose his well-paid job and find it very difficult to get another one and his family could also suffer from the loss of his income.

Had he not had the laser jamming device fitted, he would probably have got a penalty ticket.

He also did charity work in Scarborough.