Angry drivers are refusing to pay speeding fines after they were caught by a mobile camera on a road they say had no adequate warning signs.
 Several motorists who contacted The Journal said they were shocked to be snapped by a camera while travelling at around 40mph on Dukesway in Gateshead's Team Valley. Now drivers are choosing to take the matter to court because they say there were no signs to warn they had entered a 30mph area. A 30mph sign has now been put up on Dukesway but drivers who were caught between October last year and March 2004 are claiming the sign was either vandalised or was not there. But Northumbria Police and the Northumbria Safety Camera Partnership state that they would not employ mobile enforcement units if the signs were not in place. Parts of Team Valley - including nearby Kingsway and Western Avenue - is 40mph. Customer services manager Lisa Johnson (pictured), 34, of Hazelwood Close in Eighton Banks, Gateshead, was pictured earlier this year and has since been to court three times - only for the police to ask for more time to gather evidence. She said: "I saw a blue Ford Focus estate as I drove past and realised it was a mobile camera but didn't think I was speeding. "I am refusing to pay because I have photographic evidence the last sign I saw was a 40mph one "It's a matter of principle, I would pay if I was genuinely caught." Neil Aldcroft, 38, a train driver of Humford Green, Blyth has a similar experience when he was clocked driving at 42mph on the same road in March. The married father-of-three said: "There was no sign to tell me I should have been at 30mph and, as I had just come from a 40mph limit on Western Avenue, I thought that was still the speed limit. "I am being taken to court because I refuse to pay the fine but I'm confident they won't be able to do anything." But Northumbria Police Chief Supt Bob Pattinson said: "If he wants to take it to court that is up to him. "We check the signs before putting in mobile enforcement vans and we know someone took away one of the signs last October. "A soon as we knew that had happened, we contacted people who may have been caught and told them." In May, a pensioner was given an absolute discharge after being caught speeding at 39mph on the same road. James Simpson, 65, of Hollinside Close, Whickham, Gateshead, was cleared by magistrates after he told them he believed he was driving in a 40mph area as there were no visible speed limit signs on that stretch. Northumbria Safety Camera Partnership project manager Ray King said: "Legally, the speed limit is the same whether the sign is there or not." | 
