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Lotus cars has donated a brand-new Exige to the Bankstown, NSW police force. The six-month loan gives the local constabulary a head-turner that it plans to leverage in community policing projects, particularly with regard to reaching out to local youths and car enthusiasts. The thinking is that the Exige will be an instant conversation-starter with both groups, and that, in turn, will enhance the police department's credibility with them.

The Lotus sports full police markings and a removable light bar that'll be used when it's on duty helping out with things like DUI checkpoints and radar duty (nice pursuit vehicle, guys). Lotus decided to donate the ride after seeing success with a similar collaboration it had with the Norfolk police in the UK. Here you have a police car that's capable of putting smiles on the faces of both the officers behind the wheel and the local citizenry. Well, maybe not all of them -- Lotus or not, if you're getting pulled over by the the Bankstown PD's new corner carver, odds are you're not in a smiling mood.

Full press release after the jump.

[Source: Lotus]

Australian police are investigating 240 people who have blamed a dead man for driving their cars when they were cited for traffic violations. Officials think this is part of a widespread pattern of fraud wherein motorists are blaming the same dead guy or somebody from out of state to try to get out of fines.

"These offences amount to fraud and, if proven, those involved could face stiff penalties including imprisonment," New South Wales Police Superintendent Daryl Donnolly was quoted as saying in a statement released Saturday.

This whole investigation came about after a prominent retired Federal Court judge got out of a speeding ticket by claiming somebody else was driving his vehicle at the time. Turned out the person he named was a dead woman and his case is still under review for fraud or perjury charges.

His case opened up the books and had officials searching for others who might have tried similar tactics. They uncovered nearly 700,000 people in the past three years who had claimed somebody else was driving their cars at the time of the offense. So far, they have found that the same man was named on several hundred citations, even though he died five years ago. Not quite a Ghost Rider story, but we are fans, and couldn't resist slipping in an image.

[Source: Reuters]