Being caught speeding would usually involve a flash of a camera and a letter demanding a fine. 

But in Longburton, Dorset, overzealous volunteers armed with clipboards and a stern tone are menacing motorists suspected of breaking the speed limit and even accusing them of stealing their vehicles, according to one driver.

Phil Dewhurst, 40, said he was driving from his home in neighbouring Sherborne when three locals “bellowed” out his registration number and told him to slow down. 

The shouting was so loud, said Mr Dewhurst, that he could clearly hear it over the noise of his “old diesel Volvo and all the traffic with the windows shut”.

The professional musician stopped his car, and drove back to speak to the three volunteers, who were armed with a speed gun, a clipboard and high-vis jackets stamped with “community speed watch”. 

For the next 10 minutes, Mr Dewhurst says the two men and one woman scolded him “like I was a naughty schoolboy getting told off in the headmistress’s office”.

They claimed that he was doing 39mph, but Mr Dewhurst is adamant this is incorrect. “I was doing 30mph, and my car’s speedometer has been calibrated properly, I know it’s accurate,” he said. “I was met with real aggression.”

‘How do we know this is your car?’

The female member of the group leant into Mr Dewhurst’s car with her clipboard to tell him off, he claimed. One of the two men then suggested that Mr Dewhurst might not be the owner of his car. 

“He said: ‘How do we know this is your car? You could have stolen it,’” recalled Mr Dewhurst. “I said: ‘Hold on a minute, I don’t appreciate that’.”

“It left me quite shaken up.”

The three said they were working for the police, but refused to give their names or show any identification, according to Mr Dewhurst, whose registration number, name, address, and how fast he was allegedly driving were noted down.

However, locals, who declined to identify the volunteers, backed the speed watch team’s efforts. 

“It’s a quiet village with one main road so I can understand concerns for the houses and children living on that road,” said Vaughan Coleridge-Matthews, a councillor on Sherborne Town Council. 

Volunteers received training from police

He added that he is aware of the speed watch teams on the road and always takes particular care not to go over the limit there.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said: “The community speed watch team at Longburton has recently been set up and received training from a police community support officer last month.

“They have reported this incident to us through the proper channels and the group co-ordinator will be speaking with them to obtain further details of what took place. 

“We are unable to comment any further at this time.”