Getting prosecuted from Dashcam?

Nasher said:
Challenge it. It seems like it would be hard to prove there wasn't a 1.5m gap from camera footage unless it was really close.
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The police dont usually bother unless its pretty obvious that the pass was dangerous. The guy sending in 4 to 5 videos a week, inst getting 4 or 5 people convicted every week
 
jaybee said:
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.
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i agree.... at the same time i guess, the police know they would never prosecute anyone if they left that loop hole in. (unless they caught the drivers mug in the photo)
 
I've sent a few bits in from my dashcam. I don't go out of my way but if someone does something that is dangerous it gets sent for a review. Up to the police to decide yes or no. Sometimes I don't bother if I look at the footage and go nahh it is a genuine error or mistake / bad timing etc. But usually I send stuff like speeding through red lights or lack of due care and attention on roundabouts cutting people up, or just drivers causing near misses. All have been delt with by way of points / fine.
 
BUDFORCE said:
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?
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Where have you been? Even in 2019 89 dashcam footages were submitted to police daily and 25% resulted in the drivers being prosecuted. I am sure its much more now.


And its all over social media with many police forces putting up the dashcam footage and showing at the end of the clip what punishment the driver received. Lots of people getting done for passing cyclists too close on this video. And lots of people refusing to name the driver getting big fines and 6 points anyway. Although it looks most likely that people get an awareness course for close passing of a cyclist unless it was really close and dangerous

 
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If you don't actually make contact with the cyclist, is it really driving without due care and attention? I mean I get you shouldn't get close and all, but being prosecuted because a butt hurt cyclist reports you getting too close and nothing happened otherwise is a bit meh. What if you believe you did keep 1.5 metres away. What if the footage is **** and blurry. I'd go to court out of stubbornness and principle of not just bending over and taking it based on a nothing burger of evidence.
 
I had someone try to overtake me in typical London traffic when there wasn't even enough space between myself and the car in front for them to pass into. Probably doing about 15mph and they just squeezed me into the kerb due to something coming in the other direction. Utterly pointless impatience simply because being in car apparently meant they must be faster.

Reported them for the hell of it, only hoping they might get a simple ticking off. Got an email a couple of months later saying they were hadn't responded to an NIP and were being taken to court for failing to identify the driver. :cry:
 
jaybee said:
If you don't actually make contact with the cyclist, is it really driving without due care and attention? I mean I get you shouldn't get close and all, but being prosecuted because a butt hurt cyclist reports you getting too close and nothing happened otherwise is a bit meh. What if you believe you did keep 1.5 metres away. What if the footage is **** and blurry. I'd go to court out of stubbornness and principle of not just bending over and taking it based on a nothing burger of evidence.
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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
 
Bear said:
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
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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.
 
Some of the above posts seem to have a lot of trust in our justice system and the police. Nothing wrong with going to court and getting representation. A fair trial. Even if you did come too close, you can then plead guilty based on presented evidence.
 
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Cloned plates are far from an improbable one either sadly - one of the managers at work had both their card (we reckon modified cash machine at the fuel station) and registration plates cloned and used fraudulently - fortunately he'd just bought something locally (Somerset) and then they tried to buy £100s worth of fuel in Manchester. Fortunately they were stupid and his bank was on the ball and police actually caught them in the act.
 
jaybee said:
Some of the above posts seem to have a lot of trust in our justice system and the police. Nothing wrong with going to court and getting representation. A fair trial. Even if you did come too close, you can then plead guilty based on presented evidence.
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true but if you do that isnt the punishment usually a lot worse?
 
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BUDFORCE said:
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.
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You have the right to challenge it in court and the evidence will have to pass the threshold to have a good chance of obtaining a prosecution. If it was any old nonsense as jaybee suggested then you would win your case
 
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