THERE is never a good excuse for speeding, but one anti-speeding organisation has decided to make light of some of the more unbelievable ones that include being distracted by UFOs, sneezing and dying hamsters.

The Northumberland Safety Camera Partnership has listed its 10 most elaborate excuses received by staff in letters by drivers who have been caught by speed cameras.

Ray King, partnership manager, said: ‘Some drivers seem to think that if they tell a good enough story then they will get off, which unfortunately rarely works. But if there are genuine mitigating reasons, there is always the option of putting their case to a magistrate.

‘It is quite amazing the lengths some drivers will reach to avoid £60 and three points, when really the alternative is extremely simple – keep within the speed limit.’

King added: ‘This is a light-hearted look at excuses for speeding, but it is a serious issue – we’d rather not be getting any letters at all because no one is breaking the speed limit and no one is receiving a ticket.

‘That is the aim of the partnership, which of course would put me out of a job and could be considered rather an unusual Christmas wish.’

TOP 10 SPEEDING EXCUSES

I had passed out after seeing flashing lights, which I believed to be UFOs in the distance. The flash of the camera brought me round from my trance

I was in the airport’s flight path and the camera was triggered by a jet overhead

I had a severe bout of diarrhoea and had to speed to a public toilet

There was a strong wind behind my car which pushed me over the limit

My friend had just chopped his fingers off and I was rushing the fingers to hospital

The vibrations from the surfboard I had on the roof rack set off the camera

I had to rush my dying hamster to the vet

A violent sneeze caused a chain reaction where my foot pushed down harder on the accelerator

There was a suspected case of foot and mouth and I had to rush to see the cow concerned

The only way I could demonstrate my faulty clutch was to accelerate madly