A British driver who thought that he had escaped the clutches of speedgun trigger-happy police in the UK when he emigrated to New Zealand was caught speeding by the same policeman who had pulled him over in London two years earlier.

Constable Andy Flitton caught the speeder and was writing his ticket when the sharp-eyed driver recognised him as the man who had booked him two years previously on the A5 flyover on Edgware Road.

"I was writing his ticket when he came over to me and said: 'Did you used to work in London?' And when I said yes, he asked if I used to operate the laser gun on the A5 in North London," Flitton said, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Cursing the spectacularly unlikely coincidence, the driver complained that he had only ever been pulled over by the same globetrotting policeman.

"And he said: 'I thought it was you – I've only been given two speeding tickets in my life and you've given me both of them,'" Flitton said.

Flitton, originally from Bedforshire, decided to leave the fast lane. Having worked for the Metropolitan police in London for 26 years, he moved to New Zealand and took up a job with the New Zealand traffic police in Rangiora, a rural town on the South Island, two years ago.

The 47-year-old had forgotten about the original booking until the man approached him while he was writing out the ticket in September.

The driver he pulled over had both South African and British licences and told the policeman he had emigrated from England only days before being caught exceeding the speed limit.

Flitton displayed little sympathy for a man he had fined twice, 11,682 miles (18,8000km) apart.

"He only ever broke the law twice, and both times I was the one to give him a ticket," he said. "It cost him £60 over there and $120 over here, so it wasn't cheap.

"I didn't recognise him at first – I dealt with thousands of people a year in London – but I found it rather amusing."