Getting prosecuted from Dashcam?

[BUDFORCE]

Apologies if there is a thread on this already.

This happened to my mate (genuinely, not not me) and honestly got my pretty concerned.

The police got in touch with him and want to prosecute him with driving with undue care and attention. He can plead guilty and it'll like be 3 points plus fine or whatever.

However, the police are prosecuting him based on evidence supplied by a dashcam from a member of public.

It turns out he passed a cyclist and apparently didn't leave 1.5 meters between his car and the cyclist. My mate doesn't even remember the incident.

The police wont show him the footage, saying for that it'll go to court, and my mate doesn't really want to go through the hassle or potential costs if he doesn't win, understandable.

Anyway, where I am going with this thread is this is something I had never heard of before? I was under the impression that the police wouldn't act on dashcam alone, well at least not for things like this, and the person who took the dashcam evidence would have to take you to court themselves (and given most people basically wouldn't bother) it wasn't a thing.

But it clearly is a thing.

It concerns me that, given how many dashcams everyone has these days, if you step out of line at any time whilst driving, even accidentally, there is a risk that if someone captures that and submits it to the police you can be prosecuted?

 

[BUDFORCE]

The amount of cyclists with camera's is high it wouldn't surprise me if it was the cyclist that submitted the video in the OPs case.

Yup it was the cyclist, the police told him that much.

 

[BUDFORCE]

I'd have thought they have to make the footage available though if it is going to court and will be submitted as evidence. (And for the registered keeper to identify who was driving).

Well this is the thing that got me, they won't show him the footage, he can either plead guilty, or has to go to court to challenge it, only then will the footage become available.

I thought that odd, I'm not an expert, far from it, but I got caught speeding many years ago, and there was a thing where you could request the evidence, which I got.

He seemingly is not getting this option.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Do you think people are that vindictive - to spend time submitting coverage if it was a marginal offence - did you adjudicate on your mates footage ?

Yes I 100% do.

There are some right tossers out there on push bikes, probably with a chip on their shoulder thinking they own the road, only because they do not have number plates.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of awful drivers who don't give enough space, so I can understand how someone can end up like that, but I reckon the guy is a right entitled little ****, and is probably submitting 10 of theses a day trying to stitch up "the enemy".

As said previously they won't release the footage.

 

[BUDFORCE]

It’s must be very good footage to identify your friend as the driver. Is it rear and front footage?

That's the point, he doesn't know.

They won't release the footage unless he takes it to court, which obviously means he risks loosing and paying court fees etc, plus a harsher penalty, Vs just pleading guilty and taking the points and a £60 fine or whatever it is these days.

 

[BUDFORCE]

I recently submitted some dashcam of a guy who pulled out infront of me (i was doing 50ish on a 60 road) and he pulled out ~20-30 meters infront of me without even looking. Fortunately nobody was following so I managed to escape around the back of him into the junction.

Here is the reply.



Read into it what you will and to how damning the evidence will be.

Yup exactly, so what the police are doing is going to whoever that was and getting them to plead guilty.

 

[BUDFORCE]

If you elect to go to court wont they have to provide the evidence before the hearing - if you represent yourself you can then, on seeing the footage determine if its worth fighting, if not, change your plea and plead guilty before it then incurs the expense of a court appearance?

I don't know but it's a good point.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Why does that concern you? There's too many cretins driving on the roads and with too few police about they 99/100 get away with it (jumping red lights is rife at the moment).

Frankly if there's an easy prosecution the police can make just from publicly submitted footage then I'm all for it.

Because some people are vindictive little *****, that will get a power trip for doing it.

Not specifically to cyclists, but I can see people doing things that'll annoy other drivers, but from their dashcam perspective make the other party look completely in the wrong and sent that over to the police the other party, will probably just cave into the NIP, as most people will do, in fear of having to go to court.

The police will love it, because they'll get their conviction rate up without actually having to do anything.

Apparently the cyclist sends in 4-5 vids a week

Exactly.......

These are not people who have had maybe a one off something that genuinely nearly caused a severe accident or something, they are self appointed road police, probably some right entitled little **** that will try and catch anyone out over anything they possibly can.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Sometimes I can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago... need I say more?
3 people can drive our car. If you asked me who was driving at X time, X weeks ago, I may very well struggle to remember in some circumstances, especially when 2 or more of the 3 possible drivers travel together in the car, could be any one of us.

I mean the guy didn't even remember doing it, so that is very possible.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Come off it, you are clutching at straws now. The case will be assessed by the police and has to be able to pass the threshold to obtain a prosecution in court, sending any old nonsense would get you nowhere

But how would you know if you've never seen the footage because like most people, you'll just cave in and accept the penalty.

I don't trust anyone in authority personally.

 

[BUDFORCE]

true but if you do that isnt the punishment usually a lot worse?

Yea and how many completely innocent people do you think weill end up getting scared and just pay up?

It literally happened to someone here on one of the above replies.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Another reason to go to court is this:



So these cammers that submit these videos might have to go to court too. I would expect a large proportion would have ticked the "not willing" to go to court box.

Most of these fines are successful through fear of having to defend and go to court. People get scared of that, wrongly.

Yup, I'd possibly challenge it based on the fact that the entitled little weasels won't want to stand up in court.

 

[BUDFORCE]

i dont doubt some of them are weasels....... but at the same time they ARE entitled to not have drivers cut them up or force them up the kerb etc (just as car drivers should have the same entitlement from idiot cyclists who do not think that road rules apply to them as well).

there is nothing inherently wrong with catching a bad driver / cyclist / pedestrian and submitting the evidence to the police.

Fair enough.

I just know in the case of my mate he is a good driver, hes in his 60's used to be in the Air Force and and certainly not a boy racer. OK fine I wasnt in the car when it happened, he doesn't even remember the incident himself so I am not saying for certain that what happened wasnt dangerous or whatever, but I am FAR more inclined to believe it was some entitled little weasal with a chip on their shoulder having a power trip.