{"id":1012,"date":"2026-03-30T13:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/1012\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:14:14","slug":"it-nearly-broke-me-devon-lorry-driver-wins-battle-to-clear-his-name-over-motoring-offence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/1012\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It nearly broke me’ – Devon lorry driver wins battle to clear his name over motoring offence"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lorry driver from Devon says he nearly took his own life because he was so depressed at being wrongfully convicted of a driving offence on the M5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paul Down, from Tiverton<\/a>, fought for years against police to prove his innocence, overcoming multiple setbacks before finally triumphing in his battle to clear his name. The 63-year-old used the police’s own dashcam footage as evidence to quash a conviction.<\/p>\n

He says his life was turned upside down for two-and-a-half years because he was charged with a driving offence by a police officer.<\/p>\n

Now he says he’ll continue to fight for financial compensation from the authorities for the loss of earnings, legal expenses and stress caused by the case.<\/p>\n

The officer in question found fame via her TV appearances on Police: Night Shift 999 . The Channel 5 series, which began in 2022, features officers from Gloucestershire Constabulary on duty at night. Camera crews follow officers in places like Cheltenham and Gloucester as they tackle criminals on the county\u2019s streets and roads.<\/p>\n

One of the strongest characters regularly seen on the programme has been PC Katy Hammond. She has been filmed giving motorists a piece of her mind because of how they were driving.<\/p>\n

In Mr Down\u2019s case, she was not filmed for the TV programme but was captured by her body-worn video camera challenging him in the cab of his articulated lorry, reports GloucestershireLive.<\/a><\/p>\n

She and a colleague stopped Mr Down as he drove his truck in lane one of the M5, near Gloucester, on August 4, 2023. PC Hammond accused him of twice going onto the hard shoulder and veering into lane two where she claimed he nearly went into the side of her police car.<\/p>\n

After pleading not guilty to a charge of driving without due care and attention, the experienced trucker was convicted by Cheltenham magistrates following a trial in May 2024. They believed the police officers\u2019 account of what happened, and not that of Mr Down, who denied he had done anything wrong.<\/p>\n

He was fined \u00a31,000 and had six penalty points added to his driving licence. The fine was increased to \u00a33,500 after he lost the first of two crown court appeals against his conviction in June 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Paul Down outside Gloucester Crown Court after he finally cleared his name(Image: Sky\/Rob Jenkins)<\/p>\n

But his solicitors then commissioned a road traffic collision expert to analyse dashcam footage, which had been shown at the trial, from the unmarked police car that the two officers were in when they pulled him over.<\/p>\n

The expert concluded that the three-minute long video showed his lorry was driven legally and this led to the case being referred back, for a second appeal, by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.<\/p>\n

The Crown Prosecution Service did not offer any evidence at the Gloucester Crown Court hearing in December last year, meaning his conviction was quashed.<\/p>\n

Mr Down is very bitter about what happened. He became depressed and stressed at getting tens of thousands of pounds into debt, because he had difficulty getting his normal kind of work as a lorry driver while he fought to clear his name.<\/p>\n

The legal bill for fighting his case continued to rise and he had to cancel rock \u2018n\u2019 roll music events that he organises, as a hobby and second business activity, because he couldn\u2019t cover their costs.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt put a strain on my marriage (to wife Marie). But it was her who kept me going. She\u2019s one in a million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis conviction crucified me. People don\u2019t realise how your life can change so quickly. I had to go into a debt management process and it was putting my house at risk. There was the threat of bailiffs knocking on my door.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court case really got into me. I knew I\u2019d done nothing wrong but when you\u2019re convicted, it plays on your mind. There were some nasty comments that came through on Facebook. It was hard to fight the battle but I was determined to win it and I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Down had thoughts about committing suicide but said his love for his wife stopped him from doing it.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s hard to put into words\u2026the stress, anger, hassle, misery and debt. There were the restrictions on where I could work and there was the fear of losing everything – my wife, cats, home and my worthiness.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Paul Down is feeling happier with life after clearing his name(Image: Sky\/Rob Jenkins)<\/p>\n

\u201cNo-one was really believing me and everyone was saying I wouldn\u2019t win. It was against the odds. It nearly broke me and the relief of proving my innocence was enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gloucestershire Constabulary said, in a statement: \u201cWe received a complaint in relation to a case of driving without due care and attention whereby there was a conviction at court. Following appeals by the complainant, the conviction was overturned at court.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur professional standards department reviewed the case following the complaint, and it was deemed that the service provided by both of the officers involved was acceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the officers had since moved to another police force and the Independent Office for Police Conduct deemed that the complaint should have been passed to the force where the officer now worked in order for them to address the complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complaint was therefore passed to Cheshire Police and they reached the same conclusion, with there being no misconduct concerns for the officer in relation to this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Cheshire Constabulary spokesperson said: \u201cThis case was a matter of driving without due care and attention whereby a conviction was given at court. Following two separate appeals by Mr Down, the conviction was then overturned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case has been reviewed by both Gloucestershire Police\u2019s professional standards department and Cheshire Constabulary\u2019s professional standards department. The conclusion was that service was acceptable and the actions of the officer were appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been no misconduct concerns for any further action to be taken forward by Cheshire Police for PC Hammond who now works for our constabulary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added that PC Hammond did not want to comment on the matter. Mr Down, who has been driving HGVs for 27 years, said he would continue to fight for financial compensation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lorry driver from Devon says he nearly took his own life because he was so depressed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[61,393,682,683,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-1012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-facebook","10":"tag-tiverton","11":"tag-traffic-travel","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}