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Freddie Forsyth compares Met to 'Stasi hounding an old codger' in speed fine row
Evening Standard
|July 24, 2023
AUTHOR Frederick Forsyth has compared the Metropolitan Police to the Stasi and accused the force of "hounding an old codger" over a speeding ticket rather than solving burglaries.
The Day of the Jackal writer, 84, was caught by a speed camera in October and says he paid a fine for driving 7mph over the 30mph limit.
However the best-selling writer and journalist has been hauled before a court after an administrative error - which he insists the Met is to blame for. Forsyth took to his typewriter to bash out an indignant letter to the magistrate, including the suggestion that the police force has not got its priorities in order.
"Fifty years ago, being bilingual in German, I used to slip through the Berlin Wall on errands for the Firm," wrote Forsyth, in a reference to his work for M16.
The East German Stasis would salivate with envy if they had had the surveillance powers of the Met today.
Denne historien er fra July 24, 2023-utgaven av Evening Standard.
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