BNP 'higher order' defence fails

BBC News | Wednesday, 2 September 2009 | Click here for original article

A BNP politician who claimed a drink driving charge was a conspiracy by a "higher order" has been found guilty of failing to provide a breath specimen.

Robert Bailey, 43, a BNP candidate in the last European election, was caught on 28 May in his home town of Chadwell Heath, in east London.

He claimed the stop was part of a grand plot against himself and the BNP.

But Havering Magistrates Court disagreed, fined him a total of £490 and banned from driving for 18 months.

Bailey was spotted by officers driving without headlights at 2315 BST.

He refused to give a breath sample twice by the roadside and once more at a police station in Romford, east London.

The politician refused to answer when police officers who smelled alcohol on his breath asked if he had been drinking.

But the ex-Royal Marine, born in Scunthorpe, argued in court that he was the victim of a conspiracy motivated by his political beliefs.

Bailey, who claimed his phone and house were being bugged at the time, said: "I spent 14 years in the Marines and a good part of this working with the security forces - I know how the system operates.

"It adds to my belief it is a conspiracy against me, my party and the indigenous people of this country."

In court Bailey's counsel, Chris Sweetman, argued his client had a possible personality disorder that made him suspicious of police.

Mr Sweetman added his client had previously suffered depression that could have made him paranoid.

But prosecutor Adebayor Kareem argued the only reason Bailey refused to take a breath test is that it would have proved he had been drinking and driving.

District Judge John Wollard said: "I have heard nothing which establishes this defendant had a reasonable excuse on medical grounds."