Vigilante posed as traffic cop with blue lights on car to stop speeding drivers

02 January 2024 , 12:06

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Martin Goodall was found guilty (Image: BNPS)

A vigilante motorist posed as a traffic cop and put blue lights on his car to stop speeding drivers, a court heard.

Martin Goodall, 51, was found guilty of impersonating a police officer following a series of bogus traffic stops. The wannabe cop dressed in dark combat trousers, a dark top with badges on and hung a police-themed lanyard around his neck. Prosecutors said Goodall - who served as a special constable for six months in 1996 - had "ordained himself" as a cop by reaffirming his oath after Charles III became King

He fixed a blue strobe light to the dashboard of his white Vauxhall van and drove around the streets of Poole, Dorset, looking for motorists breaking the law. Using the flashing lights, Goodall was able to pull over drivers he felt were speeding. He also stopped one for running a red light and another for having an obscured number plate. On each occasion he spoke to the motorist at the roadside, telling them he was a sworn special constable and gave them a lecture about the Highway Code and warned them about their driving.

Goodall even wrote contemporaneous notes in a pocket notebook stating the date, time and location of the stop, the nature of the "offence" and the action taken. In February this year he was pulled over by a legitimate traffic officer who was aware of a report of a man fitting Goodall's description impersonating a police officer.

It related to an incident on January 25, 2023, when Goodall stopped motorist Paul Gleeson on Gravel Hill, Poole, because the licence plate on his Toyota Corolla was partly hidden by dirt. Sgt Steven Payne seized items from Goodall's van including the strobe lights and asked him to attend a voluntary interview at a later date.

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Goodall with his van and blue light at one of his "stops" (CPS/BNPS)

But Goodall went to Bournemouth police station where he identified himself as an officer and asked to interview Sgt Payne and for an interview room to be set aside for them. Despite being under investigation Goodall carried on stopping motorists.
On May 20 he activated his replacement strobe lights and pursued a black hatchback he said was "hammering it" in a 20mph zone on Lower Blandford Road, Poole.

Goodall told magistrates: "I decided to pursue the vehicle and I activated my lights, which I purchased from the Home Office Police and Security Exhibition in Farnborough in 2022, to stop the vehicle. I spoke to the driver and he admitted he was doing 35mph to 40mph in a 20mph zone."

But at that moment a genuine off-duty special constable drove past Goodall's van and thought the flashing lights looked wrong so stopped. SPC Robert Armadi asked Goodall if he was a warranted police officer and then called 999 when he realised he was impersonating an officer. A court heard that Goodall had been a special constable for Dorset Police for six months in 1996.

He stopped drivers he thought were in the wrong (CPS/BNPS)

Magistrates in Poole heard evidence from a policing manager for Dorset Police who said special constables give up their police powers when they leave the service. But Goodall believed the oath he swore to the crown in 1996 still applied 27 years later. He said: "I swore my oath to the Crown and I did not relinquish my oath."

Jason Spelman, prosecuting, said that Goodall had "ordained himself" as a sworn special constable by reaffirming his oath after Charles III became King. He said that this had no legal standing whatsoever and was something that Goodall had created.

Mr Spelman put to Goodall: "You refer to yourself as a special constable but you have no police uniform, you get no remuneration from the police. You just go around making notes and stopping people as you see fit because you think you have the powers of a police officer."

Martin Goodall outside court (BNPS)

Goodall, from Poole, denied 13 offences of impersonating a police officer in Bournemouth, Poole and Wimborne and using a vehicle fitted with a blue warning beacon. He was found guilty by District Judge Orla Austin who said: "It is clear to me that he left (the police) in December 1996 and from that point his powers to act as a special constable ceased. Any subsequent identification as a special constable was an act calculated to suggest that he was and that was false. Similarly he was not entitled to illuminate his vehicle with blue lights and that is an offence."

She adjourned sentencing for reports and Goodall is due to appear in court later this month.

Dan Warburton