Lead by example, or perhaps not...

I was in a mischievous mood today. I perhaps wouldn't have been but for what happened moments before my trial was due to start. It was about 9:15am and I was sitting in court on my own. A police officer walked in accompanied by a number of junior recruits. "Listen up" he said. "None of you have experience of giving evidence in court. I'm going to show you how it's done." My ears pricked up. "The thing to remember" he continued, "is to just stick to your statement. No matter what the defence lawyer says to you, just stick to your statement." Hmm, I thought to myself. And so the trial began- a simple matter of using a mobile phone whilst driving. Oblivious to the fact that I had been in court earlier, the officer gave his evidence in chief in accordance with his statement. I stood up to cross examine him. "According to your statement, you stopped Mr X on the 12th March, is that correct?" "Yes" he replied. "Are you 100% sure about that?" I pressed. "Of course, I recorded the date in my statement." he retorted. I passed him up the Fixed Penalty Notice which he had signed and dated the 12th May. "Look at this I said". He looked at it and then glared at me. "You see the problem." I queried. The officer simply nodded. "So in what month did you stop this vehicle- March or May?" He wasn't sure whether the mistake had been made in his statement or on the Fixed Penalty Notice. Knowing that it was game over for the Crown, I should have left it there. I couldn't help myself though. "You said that your police car was parked in the space directly outside the Co-op?" "Yes" he said. I handed up a photograph of said space which clearly had 'DISABLED BAY' marked across it in big capital letters. "Did you have your disabled badge on display?" I queried. The officer was not happy, particularly when I went on to point out which traffic regulation he was in breach of  and that he would do well to learn the rules of the road before handing out Fixed Penalty Notices to other motorists. You may think I was being childish and perhaps I was. But it serves him right as far as I am concerned. And it gave everyone in court a good laugh, junior recruits included.