A TRADER from Oxford selling spray which he claimed would make car number plates unreadable by speed cameras has been nabbed by trading standards officers in Dorset.

David Pollard, a director of Oxford Scientific Development Ltd of Wallingford, was fined £1,300 by Wimborne Magistrates Court .

The company director was ordered to pay costs of £700, and said he would destroy all remaining stock of his Safe Plate Anti Flash Protection Spray.

Paul Carter, a trading standards manager for Dorset County Council, said he was pleased by the outcome of the trial and happy that the product had been removed from the market.

Consumer protection chiefs at Dorset County Council paid more than £23 for a can of the spray, which they purchased from an internet website as a test purchase.

Officers decided to put to the test claims made on the can's printed label for the efficacy of the spray.

Dorset Safety Camera Partnership helped trading standards officers with the testing, coating the number plate of a police car in the spray and driving it past fixed and mobile Gatsometer cameras.

The spray did not work.

Johnny Stephens, the Partnership's fixed penalties chief, said he had been happy to help the trading standards officers, and warned that trying to cheat speed cameras meant driving at dangerous speeds.