Anyone been to Court over submitted Footage?

Last summer I went to court as a witness to a road rage incident. It started with a simple nose to tail shunt and then quickly spiralled out of hand. I parked up (I was in the car when it happened) returned to the scene of the incident and gave a witness statement to the cops who had arrived by then. I'll spare the details but the offender was traced and charged with assault. Luckily, the other person was not seriously hurt, but could have been very easily.

I was extremely anxious about attending court as a witness. I didn't want to be identified. I needn't have worried. Seeing that two witnesses, myself and one other had arrived as requested, the person pleaded guilty.

One thing I did do that I'd recommend strongly is writing out exactly what happened as soon as you can after an incident. It makes your memory of the incident that bit more clear and easy to recall at a later date. I'd given my statement to the cops at the time but when I wrote things down, I remembered a couple of other details also. When I went to court, I took a copy of my notes with me. I'd been sent a copy of my witness statement too, but having my own more detailed notes was very important as it made me that bit more prepared.

I have - Taxi didn't stop on a roundabount and almost collected me - He pleaded not guilty, and I ended up sitting around in Bromley Magistrates Court for an afternoon waiting to be called when I was told I could go as he'd changed his plea to guilty after reviewing the footage. £200 and 3 points takining him to 15 points, but not suspended because of hardship.

I did nearly a year ago after a range rover overtook me closely on a bend and forced an oncomming car to swerve. CPS didn't have the footage from my rear camera which showed the cloud of dust from the oncoming car having to swerve up the verge and would also have shown the point the Range Rover started the overtake and would have allowed me to prove that he wouldn't have had a clear veiw of the concoming lane. Dispite all that and the prosecuting solicitor telling me we had a weak case and defendant would get off, we won. He got 3 points, £150 fine, £30 victim surcharge and £300 costs. Bet he wished that he'd taken the driver awareness course he was initially offered....

I did a few years back when a minicab decided to cut across me in London. I managed to brake in time, but as he pulled away, without getting out of his car he ran over my front wheel.

Went to court due to footage and he got 3 points and £150 fine!

I lost a days pay and no compensation for a new wheel so wouldn't bother helping the police prosecute. 

I've been twice.  The first time was the case of a motorcyclist whom I had filmed in a cycle lane.  He pleaded not guilty, and the case went to Bromley Magistrates.   My wife came along with me.  When the magistrate was questioning me about how I had been inconvenienced, I started to tell him that the rider of the motorcyclist had been in the cycle lane, and he interrupted me to say, 'Yes, yes.  But how were you inconvenienced?'  

Puzzled, I hesitated.  'I .. I ... ' 

I couldn't understand why I was being asked how he had 'inconvenienced' me, as he had been filmed inside a cycle lane.  What did it matter the effect on me?  Then it slowly dawned on me: some thick fuck at the Met or at the CPS had decided to charge him with a s. 3 offence, which states: 

'A person is to be regarded as driving without reasonable consideration for other persons only if those persons are inconvenienced by his driving...'

Since no one had been inconvenienced by his being in the cycle lane, he walked away with a not guilty verdict. 

That experience actually put my wife on a bit of a downer for the rest of the week.  She wasn't that bothered about the not guilty verdict per se, but as she said, 'The whole system bent over backwards to make sure he got off with it'.   She has refused to come with me, since then.   

I complained to the Met that the wrong charge had been laid.  They 'partially' upheld my complaint, and told me that the staff member in question was being 'given additional training'.  I actually learned his name, and thought of checking on Facebook or whatever, to see whether he was a motorcyclist, but couldn't be bothered.  But the Met wrote to me again a month or so later, to say that after looking into it, it appeared that they in fact weren't responsible for cycle lane enforcement and that with the exception of Barnet, Bexley, Greenwich, Kensington and Chelsea and Sutton council areas, it was now up to the councils.  As such, Mr Motorcyclist shouldn't even have been prosecuted.  Or so they said.

I identified the councils through whose patch(es) my commute traced, and wrote to them, to ask them if they could tell me how I should report offences to them.   Their response came a few days later and was essentially, 'No idea what you're talking about, mate.  It's the Met's responsibility'.

Back to the Met.  'Nope, it's the councils' responsibility'.  Back to the councils.  'No it isn't'.  Back to the Met.  'Oh, yes it is!'.  

And so on.  

I forwarded my correspondence to my MP, who in turn sent it to the Minister of Transport - who at the time was Jesse Norman.  He wrote back to say that the policing of cycle lanes inside London was the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police Service.   I sent this letter to the Met, and they finally accepted that it was up to them to police cycle lanes, but claimed that there had simply been 'a misunderstanding'. 

The second case was mobile phone use.  I don't know why the bloke entered a not guilty plea, as he was there in glorious 1080p colour, using the phone when driving.  He was found guilty.

There are currently three more cases pending, where the Met have asked me for upcoming holidays etc.  One of them is going to be interesting as it's the case of a driving instructor who, whilst supervising a learner, was sitting doing Facebook on her phone.  I don't know how she'll plead, but I shall report on it here, if anyone's the slightest bit interested.  

I haven't, but someone posted this a couple of years ago - https://road.cc/content/forum/236569-went-court-dangerous-driving-witness