A CHIEF constable who will this week be appointed as Britain’s most senior traffic policeman has twice been caught speeding.

Meredydd Hughes, head of South Yorkshire police, is likely to launch a crackdown on tailgaters and drug drivers and favours the introduction of a variable speed limit of up to 80mph on motorways.

Motorists expecting him to take a more lenient line on speed camera policy than Richard Brunstrom, his predecessor — nicknamed the “traffic Taliban” — will be disappointed. Despite his own indiscretions — which resulted in two £60 fines and six penalty points on his licence — Hughes has claimed that all speed cameras should be hidden and mobile.

The police chief, who will take over on Tuesday as head of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), was first photographed by a fixed camera on the A61 as he drove to work in Sheffield at around 6am.

Months later Hughes, who was born in Cardiff, was clocked by a mobile unit during a private trip to visit relatives in south Wales. It is not known how fast he was travelling on either occasion.

After the disclosure last year Hughes, 47, said: “At least you can’t call me a hypocrite. If I had my way, all cameras would be completely hidden and mobile. If we are serious about speed cameras, we will have to think about that.”

Hughes has previously conceded that the spread of speed cameras has dented the public’s faith in road policing and he has called for the introduction of variable speed limits as a means of restoring trust.

He is also an advocate of speed awareness courses, which motorists can attend as an alternative to receiving penalty points on their licences.

“I think we have lost the PR battle at this time and we shouldn’t have,” Hughes told a Police Federation conference last year.

He claimed that technology should allow road signs to vary the speed limit “to not just 70, 60 or 50, but something more” if driving conditions were appropriate. Hughes pointed out that it made little sense for the same limit to apply at 2am on a Sunday on a deserted motorway as it did during a weekday rush hour.

Hughes has also revealed plans for automatic tailgating cameras, similar to speed cameras, to catch motorists who deliberately drive too close behind other vehicles. The cameras will use lasers to record the gap between two cars over a given distance, their speeds and the numberplate of the offending driver.

Having served as head of roads policing enforcement technology at Acpo until now, Hughes was viewed as Brunstrom’s natural successor.

Brunstrom, chief constable of North Wales police, avoided being caught by the cameras he championed by fitting a speed limiter to his Mercedes. He once said: “I’ve been told that I drive like an undertaker and I take that as a compliment.”

Hughes was unavailable for comment this weekend.

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