The lawyer with the most to lose from a police crackdown on legal loopholes was surprisingly honest today.

Nick Freeman, also known as Mr Loophole, has built up a hugely successful business defending clients on dangerous and drink-driving charges.

The man who persuaded a court to let David Beckham off a speeding ban because he was escaping from paparazzi photographers has become the undisputed lawyer of choice for celebrities caught behind the wheel after having had one too many.

His other successes include convincing a court, with medical evidence, that Ronnie O’Sullivan had psychological reasons for refusing to give a urine sample on demand and that Sir Alex Ferguson should be excused for driving on a motorway hard shoulder because he was desperate for the toilet.

But Mr Freeman, who advertises his services on the website www.KeepOnDriving.co.uk,admitted that there is little legal magic behind his success today, insisting that he simply takes advantage of police incompetence.

"There are no such things as ‘loopholes’ in these cases - it is simply the word of the law. People are acquitted because the police are not doing their job properly," Mr Freeman said.

A high profile success in 2001 illustrates Mr Freeman’s point. A woman found slumped at the wheel of her car nearly four times over the drink-drive limit and with an empty bottle of vodka at her feet was cleared after Mr Freeman demonstrated that police had not read her her rights.

In recognition of the fact that many drivers are escaping conviction because of police error, the Association of Chief Police Officers, today promised better training.

Perhaps ironically for a man reputed to have earned hundreds of thousands of pounds exploiting police errors, Mr Freeman has made no secret of the fact that they need to sharpen up.

Last year he told the Tonight With Trevor McDonald programme that the number of drivers acquitted of offences could be heavily reduced and that police were not properly trained in the procedure for dealing with driving offences.

The PR-savvy Mr Freeman, who seems to revel in the notoriety that accompanies helping celebrity clients, said: "Put it this way, if the Government wanted to pay me to go and train police officers, I can guarantee there would be very few people acquitted on technicalities."

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